TALES MEN DELE THE BooK PEDDLER
Transcript of TALES MEN DELE THE BooK PEDDLER
TALES OF
MEN DELE THE BooK PEDDLER
FISHKE THE LAME AND
BENJAMIN THE THIRD
S.Y. Abramovitsh MENDELE MOYKHER SFORIM
EDITED BY DAN MIRON AND KEN FRIEDEN INTRODUCTION BY DAN MIRON
LIBRARY OF YIDDISH CLASSICS
FPT $25 .00 U.S.A.
$35 .00 Can.
B o rn in Be loru ss i a in 18 3 6, S. Y.
Abramovitsh was the founding father of mod
ern Yiddish fi ction. His stories and novels
depict small-town Jewish life in ' the Russian
Pale of Settlement through the hilarious, satir
ic, and sympathetic tales of his alter ego/ nar
rator, Mendele the Book Peddler ("Mendele
Moykher Sforim") . This itinerant peddler, who
travels the Pale collecting good stories, was so
closely identified with Abramovitsh 's fiction
that "Mendele" became the author's pen name.
This volume-the fourth in Schocken's
acclaimed Library of Yiddish Classics-brings
together two of Abramovitsh 's best- loved
novellas: "Fishke the Lame," a bittersweet love
story set in the world of beggars, paupers, and
rogues, and "The Brief Travels of Benjamin the
Third," the comical misadventures of a
Quixote-Panza pair who set off to see the
world outside their town. These tales, in
superb new translations by Ted Gorelick and
Hillel H alkin, represent Yiddish storytelling at
its best-full of heart, humor, and homespun
wisdom .
TALES OF
M ENDELE THE BOOK
PEDDLER
THE LIBRARY OF YIDDISH CLASSICS
IS SPONSORED BY THE FUND FOR THE
TRANSLATION OF JEWISH LITERATURE
Series editor: Ruth R. Wisse
Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories by Sholem Aleichem
translated and with an introduction by Hillel Balkin
The I. L. Peretz Reader edited and with an introduction by Ruth R. Wisse
The Dybbuk and Other Writings
byS. Ansky edited and with an introduction by David G. Roskies
Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler: Fishke the Lame and Benjamin the Third
by S. Y. Abramovitsh (Mendele Moykher Sforim) edited by Dan Miron and Ken Frieden
with an introduction by Dan Miron translations by Ted Gorelick and Hillel Balkin
YIDDISH CLASSICS
TALES OF .
M ENDELE -~~ THE B 0 0 K ..
PEDDLER FISHKE THE LAME AND
BENJAMIN THE THIRD
S. Y. Abramovitsh (M ENDELE MOYK HER SFORI M)
INTRODUCTION BY DAN MIRON
TRANSLATIONS BY TED GORELICK
AND HILLEL HALKIN
SCHOCKEN BOOKS t NEW
Copyright© I 996 by Fund for the
Translation of Jewish Literature
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by
Schocken Books Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada
by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by
Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Men dele Moykher Sforim, I 8 3 t;- I 9 I 7.
[Fishke der krumer. English]
Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler: Fishke the Lame and Benjamin
the Third I S. Y. Abramovitsh (Mendele Moykher Sforim); edited by
Dan Miron and Ken Frieden; introduction by Dan Miron; translations
by Ted Gorelick and Hillel Halkin.
p. em. - (Library of Yiddish classics)
ISBN o-8ot;2-4-I 36 - I
I. Mendele Moykher Sforim, I 8 Jt;- I 9 I 7. II. Miron, Dan.
III. Frieden, Ken, I9H- . IV Mendele Moykher Sforim,
I 8 Jt;- I 9 I 7. Kitsur mas' ot Binyamin ha-shelishi. English. V Title.
VI. Series.
P}t;I29.A2Ft;I3 I996
Book design by Chris Welch
Manufactured in the United States of America
4- 6 9 t;
CONTENTS
Introduction by Dan Miron vii
A Note on the Translations lxxi
fishke the Lame: A Book of Jewish Poorfo[k 1
The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third 299
Glossary 393