Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories
English translation and introduction © 2016 by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
Paul Lempel is a copyright owner of the original Yiddish-language works, the English-language translations of which appear in this volume.
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including electronic storage and retrieval systems, except by explicit prior written permission of the publisher. Brief passages may be excerpted for review and critical purposes.
This book is typeset in Bembo on 11.5 over 15.5
Book design by Sandy Rodgers
Cover art, “Innocence Reflected,” by Fran Forman
Photographs of Blume Lempel courtesy of Paul Lempel
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lempel, Blume, author. | Cassedy, Ellen, translator. | Taub, Yermiyahu Ahron, translator.
Title: Oedipus in Brooklyn & other stories / by Blume Lempel; translated from the Yiddish by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub.
Other titles: Oedipus in Brooklyn and other stories
Description: Simsbury, Connecticut: Mandel Vilar Press; Takoma Park,
Maryland: Dryad Press, [2016] | The first eleven stories in this volume were published in Yiddish in “A rege fun emes” (A moment of truth), by Blume Lempel (Tel Aviv: I.L. Peretz Publishing House, 1981). The second eleven stories were published in Yiddish in “Balade fun a kholem” (Ballad of a dream), by Blume Lempel (Tel Aviv: Israel Book Publishing House, 1986). | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016035817 (print) | LCCN 2016036370 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942134220 (E-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Short stories, Yiddish. | LCGFT: Short stories.
Classification: LCC PJ5129.L4175 A6 2016 (print) | LCC PJ5129.L4175 (ebook) | DDC 839/.134--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035817
Mandel Vilar Press / 19 Oxford Court, Simsbury, Connecticut 06070
www.americasforconservation.org / www.mvpress.org
Dryad Press / P.O. Box 11233, Takoma Park, Maryland 20913
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The first eleven stories in this volume were published in Yiddish in A rege fun emes (A Moment of Truth), by Blume Lempel (Tel Aviv: I.L. Peretz Publishing House, 1981). The second eleven stories were published in Yiddish in Balade fun a kholem (Ballad of a Dream), by Blume Lempel (Tel Aviv: Israel Book Publishing House, 1986). These stories were translated with the kind permission of Blume Lempel’s son, Paul Lempel.
“Pastorale” appeared in Yiddish in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv: No. 122, 1987). “The Fate of the Yiddish Writer” appeared in Yiddish in Yidishe kultur (New York: Vol. 48, November/December 1986). “The Death of My Aunt,” translated by Ellen Cassedy, and “Neighbors over the Fence,” translated by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, appeared previously in slightly different form in Pakn Treger, the magazine of the Yiddish Book Center. “Pastorale,” translated by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, appeared in KIN: Journal of Literary Translation (Ottawa: Issue 8, April 2016). “The Little Red Umbrella,” translated by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, appeared in The Brooklyn Rail: In Translation (Brooklyn, NY: April 2016).
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Sonya Staff Foundation provided financial support for the translation project.
Dedicated to Blume Lempel’s husband Lemel,
who, seeing the atrocities being visited upon European Jewry,
had the foresight and good fortune to move the family from Paris
to New York before the outbreak of war in 1939,
and to Blume’s brother Israel Pfeffer,
who remained in France and fought with the underground.
He was captured by the Nazis and murdered in 1944.
— Paul Lempel, son of Blume and Lemel Lempel
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Even the Heavens Tell Lies
Pachysandra
The Death of My Aunt
Images on a Blank Canvas
Neighbors over the Fence
The Debt
My Friend Ben
Oedipus in Brooklyn
Cousin Claude
A Yiddish Poet in Paris
The Power of a Melody
Yosele
The Bag Lady of Seventh Avenue
En Route to Divorce
The Little Red Umbrella
Her Last Dance
Waiting for the Ragman
The Twin Sisters
A Little Song for a Jewish Soul
The Invented Brother
A Snowstorm in Summerland
Yosemite Park
Pastorale
The Fate of the Yiddish Writer (essay)
Translators’ Acknowledgments
About the Translators
Blume
