How Christian
Jacob Glatstein
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
How Christian, so to speak, can I become?
How much Christian could I be?
How much mercy1 was ever up to me?
And what can I forgive?
Sure I can maybe toss out a soft crumb
Or two, on the account of one small life.
But then what in regard to that divine extermination?
Can I forgive on their behalf?2 Did they
Grant such dispensation?
And is it my place to betray
The burning bush of death?
All the face-slappers3 slapped both cheeks of mine.
No Cossack ever gave a Mishnah-Jew4 a chance
To even turn the other cheek.
How much Jew in me can be Christianed5 out, so to speak?
A smidgen. That much pity
You can beg out of me
For children of my blood-bathed crime-leprous6 enemy.
So here you go: a smidgen of sympathy.
Take it. Dole it out. No loss.
But do not shadow down6 my heart
With an oh-so-merciful cross.
1 - The word רחמנות rakhmónes here translated variously as "pity, mercy" encompasses both the idea of (divine) mercy alongside feelings of human pity.
2 - The word היתּר héter means permission, and has rabbinical connotations involving Jewish law.
3- The word פאַטשער patsher "slapper" is also a term for the Christian prayers or rosary beads (from "pater noster.") The double-meaning is intended.
4 - Mishnah Jew: a simple Jew. One who has studied the Hebrew Mishnah but hasn't gone on to study the Aramaic Talmud. Proverbial for "a simple man."
5 - The verb אָפּשמדן opshmádn means "to convert (a Jew) to Christianity, to Christianize" from שמדן shmadn "to baptize (a Jew)," ultimately from a Hebrew etymon which originally meant "destroy."
The reflexive opshmadn zikh — which is the form used here — is intransitive and means "to convert, to become Christian." This lexical root is associated with forced conversion, coercion, subordination, capitulation and self-erasure in the face of Gentile society. (The use of derivatives of שמד to refer to conversion also has a long history in medieval Hebrew, preceding that of Yiddish. The medieval Hebrew term משומדים "converts, conversos" goes back to at least the ninth century. Modern Hebrew has לְשַׁמֵד lešamed "to coerce into converting to Christianity," and להשתמד lehištamed "to commit apostasy" alongside other derivations e.g. לְהַשְׁמִיד lehašmid "to obliterate, to exterminate" where the root's earlier semantics are more transparent.) The term משומד meshumed "convert" may be used to refer to "scoundrel, rascal, ill-behaved asshole". Erger vi a meshumed "worse than a convert to Christianity" is proverbial for "the lowest of the low."
One might complain (as indeed a great many did complain) that the Yiddish writer Sholem Asch had אָפּגעשמדט opgeshmad the Yiddish language by dealing with Christian subjects in his work (his novel דער מאַן פֿון נצרת The Man From Nazareth about the life of Jesus landed him in especially hot water.) Some Hasidim may deem secular Jews to have been opgeshmad. Humorously opshmadn may be used to mean "water down" in reference to alcoholic drinks.
The negative connotations of opshmadn and shmadn have a very different flavor from words in non-Jewish languages which one might use to translate them. In fact, words like English "baptize, christen, Christianize" correspond more exactly to different terms in Yiddish, generally of Germanic or Slavic coin, which may be used instead in scholarly contexts or if one simply wishes to speak neutrally about Christians. Such neutral terms include e.g. farkristikn "Christianize" kristikn "baptize, christen", kreshtshen zikh "to convert, to be baptized, to make the sign of the cross over oneself" (cf. Russian kreščat'), shvyentshen "sanctify, baptize, bless" (from Polish święcić), and, rarely, toyfn "baptize."
Shmadn "baptize" can only be used hostilely to refer to the baptism of a Jew into Christianity. If one wishes to refer in a demeaning way to Christians baptizing their own children, the word is bashventslen. (Yiddish has a whole other range of aversive terms to refer to Christian life. Prapln "jabber, mumble" to refer to Christian prayer, Yoyzl "Jeezittle" to refer to a crucifix or visual depiction of Christ, Di Blinde Nakht "Blindnight" for Christmas. Tseylemnik "cross-thumper" meaning "bigot". And of course there are a great many insulting or aversive names for Jesus.)
6 - מצורעדיק metsóyredik literally means "leprous, leper-like." But it has tradition-laden resonances. The Hebrew etymon metsóyre is a denominal derivation from צרעת tsoraas, traditionally translated as "leprosy" though it can apply to places and clothing, nor merely humans. It is mentioned in e.g. Leviticus 13-14. Tsoraes in Jewish tradition is a sickness understood to result from some sort of grave infraction (often that of לשון הרע loshn hore, harming someone by speaking ill of them.) The implication is that Christians have made themselves unclean, diseased themselves, with their actions.
6 — there is some wordplay here in the Yiddish. Glatstein's text has פֿאַרשאָטן farshótn "to cover with shadows" where one might have expected פֿאַרשאַטן farshátn "to harm, to injure."
The Original:
Jacob Glatstein
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
How Christian, so to speak, can I become?
How much Christian could I be?
How much mercy1 was ever up to me?
And what can I forgive?
Sure I can maybe toss out a soft crumb
Or two, on the account of one small life.
But then what in regard to that divine extermination?
Can I forgive on their behalf?2 Did they
Grant such dispensation?
And is it my place to betray
The burning bush of death?
All the face-slappers3 slapped both cheeks of mine.
No Cossack ever gave a Mishnah-Jew4 a chance
To even turn the other cheek.
How much Jew in me can be Christianed5 out, so to speak?
A smidgen. That much pity
You can beg out of me
For children of my blood-bathed crime-leprous6 enemy.
So here you go: a smidgen of sympathy.
Take it. Dole it out. No loss.
But do not shadow down6 my heart
With an oh-so-merciful cross.
1 - The word רחמנות rakhmónes here translated variously as "pity, mercy" encompasses both the idea of (divine) mercy alongside feelings of human pity.
2 - The word היתּר héter means permission, and has rabbinical connotations involving Jewish law.
3- The word פאַטשער patsher "slapper" is also a term for the Christian prayers or rosary beads (from "pater noster.") The double-meaning is intended.
4 - Mishnah Jew: a simple Jew. One who has studied the Hebrew Mishnah but hasn't gone on to study the Aramaic Talmud. Proverbial for "a simple man."
5 - The verb אָפּשמדן opshmádn means "to convert (a Jew) to Christianity, to Christianize" from שמדן shmadn "to baptize (a Jew)," ultimately from a Hebrew etymon which originally meant "destroy."
The reflexive opshmadn zikh — which is the form used here — is intransitive and means "to convert, to become Christian." This lexical root is associated with forced conversion, coercion, subordination, capitulation and self-erasure in the face of Gentile society. (The use of derivatives of שמד to refer to conversion also has a long history in medieval Hebrew, preceding that of Yiddish. The medieval Hebrew term משומדים "converts, conversos" goes back to at least the ninth century. Modern Hebrew has לְשַׁמֵד lešamed "to coerce into converting to Christianity," and להשתמד lehištamed "to commit apostasy" alongside other derivations e.g. לְהַשְׁמִיד lehašmid "to obliterate, to exterminate" where the root's earlier semantics are more transparent.) The term משומד meshumed "convert" may be used to refer to "scoundrel, rascal, ill-behaved asshole". Erger vi a meshumed "worse than a convert to Christianity" is proverbial for "the lowest of the low."
One might complain (as indeed a great many did complain) that the Yiddish writer Sholem Asch had אָפּגעשמדט opgeshmad the Yiddish language by dealing with Christian subjects in his work (his novel דער מאַן פֿון נצרת The Man From Nazareth about the life of Jesus landed him in especially hot water.) Some Hasidim may deem secular Jews to have been opgeshmad. Humorously opshmadn may be used to mean "water down" in reference to alcoholic drinks.
The negative connotations of opshmadn and shmadn have a very different flavor from words in non-Jewish languages which one might use to translate them. In fact, words like English "baptize, christen, Christianize" correspond more exactly to different terms in Yiddish, generally of Germanic or Slavic coin, which may be used instead in scholarly contexts or if one simply wishes to speak neutrally about Christians. Such neutral terms include e.g. farkristikn "Christianize" kristikn "baptize, christen", kreshtshen zikh "to convert, to be baptized, to make the sign of the cross over oneself" (cf. Russian kreščat'), shvyentshen "sanctify, baptize, bless" (from Polish święcić), and, rarely, toyfn "baptize."
Shmadn "baptize" can only be used hostilely to refer to the baptism of a Jew into Christianity. If one wishes to refer in a demeaning way to Christians baptizing their own children, the word is bashventslen. (Yiddish has a whole other range of aversive terms to refer to Christian life. Prapln "jabber, mumble" to refer to Christian prayer, Yoyzl "Jeezittle" to refer to a crucifix or visual depiction of Christ, Di Blinde Nakht "Blindnight" for Christmas. Tseylemnik "cross-thumper" meaning "bigot". And of course there are a great many insulting or aversive names for Jesus.)
6 - מצורעדיק metsóyredik literally means "leprous, leper-like." But it has tradition-laden resonances. The Hebrew etymon metsóyre is a denominal derivation from צרעת tsoraas, traditionally translated as "leprosy" though it can apply to places and clothing, nor merely humans. It is mentioned in e.g. Leviticus 13-14. Tsoraes in Jewish tradition is a sickness understood to result from some sort of grave infraction (often that of לשון הרע loshn hore, harming someone by speaking ill of them.) The implication is that Christians have made themselves unclean, diseased themselves, with their actions.
6 — there is some wordplay here in the Yiddish. Glatstein's text has פֿאַרשאָטן farshótn "to cover with shadows" where one might have expected פֿאַרשאַטן farshátn "to harm, to injure."
The Original:
וויפֿל קריסט
יעקבֿ גלאַטשטיין
וויפֿל קריסט קען איך עס ווערן, מישטיינס געזאָגט?
וויפֿל רחמנותֿ ליגט דען אין מײַן רשותֿ
און וואָס קען איך פֿאַרגעבן?
זאָל זײַן, כ׳קען זיך וואַרפֿן מיט ווייכע קרישקעס
אויפֿן חשבון פֿון אַ פּיצל לעבן.
אָבער וואָס איז מכּוח דער געטלעכער פֿאַרטיליקונג?
האָב איך דען פֿון זיי געקראָגן היתּר
און באַוויליקונג?
און באַוויליקונג?
קען איך זײַן דער פֿאַררעטער
פֿון דעם ברענענדיקן דאָרן פֿון טויט?
אַלע מײַנע פּאַטשערס האָבן געפּאַטשט מײַנע ביידע באַקן.
ס׳האָבן קיין מאָל קאָזאַקן
נישט געגעבן די געלעגנהייט
אַ משניות-ייד צו ווערן אַ באַק-אויפֿשטעלער.
וויפֿל ייד קען איך אין זיך אָפּשמדן, מישטיינס געזאָגט?
אַ כּזיתֿ. אַזוי פֿיל רחמנותֿ
קען מען נאָך בײַ מיר אויסבעטלען
פֿאַר די קינדער פֿון מײַנע מצורעדיקע שׂונאים.
אָט דעם כּזיתֿ מיטלייד – נעם בײַ מיר צו, פֿאַרטייל אים.
אָבער פֿאַרשאָטן נישט מײַן האַרץ
מיט אַ רחמנותֿדיקן צלם.
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