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| November 14, 2005 |
REVIEW: Radiant Days, Haunted Nights
 Yiddish, they say, is all the rage. People just love their Yiddish. Musicians insert Yiddish into their lyrics. Authors rewrite old Yiddish folk tales. Long dead authors who wrote in Yiddish are finding their work consumed by an audience of their great-grandchildren.
I'm not altogether sure why Yiddish is so popular, though I won't complain. There is a treasure of mirthful stories and wonderous folk tales buried in the stacks of Yiddish bibliophiles. The problem with this Yiddish revival is that the vast majority of people who are so interested don't read Yiddish. Which means a monumental translation job, and something of a overwhelming trickle of Yiddish publications.
All of this makes it a bit easier to survey the landscape of translated Yiddish literature and really savor the best bits. Radiant Days, Haunted Nights falls into that category. A sweeping survey of Yiddish literature, it begins with the 16th century writings of... well, we don't know. "The Song of Isaac" has Anonymous as an author. The book continues in more or less chronological order through the 17oos, into th elate 19th century and up through the end of World War II.
There are sermons, poems, and simple short stories. There are well known authors and the less well known. There is epic midrash and mundane narratives, and for some reason the last half of the book utterly abandons the chronological order already established. All in all, however, the breadth and quality of this volume is a notch above the rest of Yiddish translations.
If you're looking for a favorite, jump to the next to last story. "The Birth of Satan" by Sholom Asch tells of the intimacy between God and Lilith that produced the offspring Satan who would compete eternally with the Almighty for the will of humanity. That's epic.
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