And now we must create something firm in our hearts

[sovay]

My prose poem "On Two Streets, with Three Languages" has been accepted by Interfictions. It was written for S. An-sky, also known as Semyon Akimovich Ansky, born Shloyme-Zanvl Rappoport. He is most famous for his play The Dybbuk or Between Two Worlds, staged for the first time in 1920 the month after its author's death; it was composed in Russian and premiered in Yiddish, both versions An-sky's. The title is taken from a statement he made about himself at a banquet in his honor in 1910: "A writer has a difficult fate, but a Jewish writer has an especially difficult fate. His soul is torn; he lives on two streets, with three languages." The third language is the one that interested me. In his life as in his work, An-sky is a weird, restless, liminal figure, and it's only relatively recently that I've been able to find as much biographical material about him as I would like. I can recommend Gabrielle Safran's Wandering Soul: The Dybbuk's Creator, S. An-sky (2010) and Nathaniel Deutsch's The Jewish Dark Continent: Life and Death in the Russian Pale of Settlement (2011).

Not in any way related except by ghosts: Roman skulls discovered on the banks of one of London's lost rivers. Yay, history.

Comments

[yhlee]

Yay poem!

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. A most excellent, intriguing title.

O my! River-polished skulls. And the little gilt votive phallus is rather sweet.

Nine

[gwynnega]

Congratulations!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm always happy to get Not One of Us in the mail.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

The red layer and the rivers beneath continually fascinate me, so I'm very glad to see somebody stumbling over a skull-grove. Hail, Andraste, Vengeance-lady! I feel the brush of your black wings in darkness.;)

Congrats on the placement, meanwhile. That sounds amazing.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

A sale! A sale! Huzzah! Up with prose poetry! Especially by you!

*hugs*