REMEMBERING
MOSHE LEYB HALPERN
MODERNIST YIDDISH POET
אַנדענק פֿאַר משה לײב האַלפּערן
Join us on Facebook Live this Sunday, August 30,
from 11 AM – 12 (2-3 PM EST) for an artistic tribute to the groundbreaking Yiddish modernist poet,
Moyshe Leyb Halpern (1886 – Aug. 31, 1932).
Organized by the Congress for Jewish Culture and
the California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language.
Featuring Mike Burstyn, Raphael Crystal, Daniel Kahn, Miri Koral, Yeva Lapsker-Kahn, Ruth Levin, Sasha Lurje, Miryem-Khaye Seigel, and Michael Wex in a musical and spoken tribute. Poet and author of the lyric for Di Zun Vet Aruntergeyn, Halpern left an incredible body of work that artists have yet to fully explore. See Glat Azoy (Just Because) below.
IN YIDDISH AND ENGLISH
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גלאַט־אַזוי
.גלאַט־אַזוי
Just Because
Moyshe Leyb stood up
In the middle of the night to figure out the world.
He listens to his own thoughts –
Someone whispers in his ear
that everything is
straight and everything is awry
and that the world around everything spins.
Moyshe Leyb picks with his nails at a straw
and smiles.
Why?
Just because.
He picks at a straw in the night,
and then he has another thought.
He thinks – he listens again –
Someone whispers in his ear
that nothing is straight and nothing is awry
and that the world around nothing spins.
Moyshe Leyb picks with his nails at a straw
and smiles.
Why?
Just because.
(Translated by Ruth Whitman/ mk ed)
Hosted by
The Congress for Jewish Culture
California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language