(Jewish Group) Meet the musicians turning old Yiddish poems into 21st-century songs
To her early 20th-century audience, Tsilye Dropkin’s Yiddish poetry was as shocking for its content as its form. A Russian-born poet who immigrated to New York City at the age of 25, Dropkin broke away from the traditional poetic formats of her Jewish predecessors, opting for the free verse experimentation that was gaining steam in the greater literary world. And rather than portraying broad themes like the political struggles of her people, as was de rigueur in Yiddish poetry at the time, Dropkin favored highly personal subject matter.
Love and sex, eros and thanatos, intense longing and raw flesh — this was Dropkin’s poetic domain. And as such, she was mostly ignored or criticized by the (mostly male) Yiddish literary establishment.
But time has caught up with Dropkin. Yiddishists study her in universities around the world. Her work is available in translation for those looking to connect with this revolutionary woman writer. And her poems have also drawn the attention of Yiddish musical artists, who find in her work themes and imagery of remarkable contemporary resonance.
Two new Yiddish music albums place Dropkin’s work, along with that of other 20th-century Yiddish poets, into 21st-century musical settings, illuminating an oft-overlooked body of work for contemporary listeners. While “Nem mayn vort,” by Sveta Kundish and Patrick Farrell, and “Kosmopolitn,” by the duo Tsvey Brider, boast different styles, they share at least one similarity: a mission to celebrate this rich literary tradition through music.
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