COMMENT ON MENKE: THE COMPLETE YIDDISH POEMS. TRANSLATED BY BENJAMIN AND BARBARA HARSHAV.
Brian Adam
John Bennett
Abe Brumberg
Kathryn Hellerstein
Constance Hunting
Aaron Lansky
Donald Lev
John L. Natkie
S.S. Prawer
Leslie H. Whitten, Jr.
Elie Wiesel
BRIAN ADAM (artist):
"I am in joy reading the book. That you for bringing home to my memory,
the house on 55th Street in Brooklyn, the forest house in Spring Glen, its river,
the l'chaims; the lore and the 'Law.' After studying the photo of Menke under
a magnifying glass, lurking somewhere within me a painting blurted it way to
the surface."
JOHN BENNETT (editor, Vagabond Press):
"What a tome! What a great act of love. Major."
ABE BRUMBERG (author):
"Menke Katz's poems, superbly translated by the remarkably gifted couple
Benjamin and Barbara Harshav, came as an astonishing surprise. Menke was born
in Lithuania in l906 and died in the United States in 1991. Several hundred
translations from the Yiddish, plus numerous poems written English by Menke
clearly demonstrate the abundance, quality and sweep of Menke's output.'
KATHRYN HELLERSTEIN (professor, University of Pennsylvania):
"Magnificent!"
CONSTANCE HUNTING (editor, Puckerbrush Review, University
of Maine):
"I've been reading MENKE & am amazed and delighted. A tremendous work."
AARON LANSKY (founder and president, National Yiddish Book
Center):
"A great accomplishment."
DONALD LEV (Editor, Home Planet News):
"A very impressive piece of publishing. But Menke was a pretty impressive
human being."
JOHN L. NATKIE (Editor, Crazy Polack's Press, Mesa, Arizona):
"Menke was the first to publish me back in 1976 in Bitterroot. Those were
dark days when I was just adjusting myself to a 20 year felony conviction within
Florida's Raiford Prison. His encouragement helped me to endure and try to excel."
S. S. PRAWER (Professor emeritus, Oxford University):
"What a wonderful surprise! The Harshavs' comprehensive translation of
Menke's poetry, with the splendidly lively, informative and imaginatively edited
introduction has given me constant reading pleasure. It is something to treasure
for the whole of one's life."
LESLIE H. WHITTEN, JR. (novelist, poet, translator):
"The poems are so fresh, so pertinent to where America (and the world)
seems to be emotionally and politically, or rather where we should be. I'm putting
it by my bed."
ELIE WIESEL (Nobel laureate, author, professor at Boston University):
"It's evident that much care has gone into this compilation and translation-which
Menke Katz and his work surely deserved."