SUTZKEVER, ABRAHAM

SUTZKEVER, ABRAHAM (1913– ), Yiddish poet. Born in Smargon (Belorussia), Sutzkever fled with his family to Siberia to escape the German occupation of his hometown during World War I, returning to Vilna after the war. He was not educated in the city's secular Yiddish schools, but rather at a Polish-Hebrew secondary school. He taught himself about Yiddish literature as a teenager through disciplined self-study, later auditing classes on Polish Romanticism at University of Vilna and studying early Yiddish literature under max weinreich at YIVO. He first discovered his poetic calling when, in 1930, he joined the Jewish scouts and befriended leyzer wolf , a leader of the literary group yung-vilne . His membership in that group was initially rejected because his poetry lacked political engagement, but in 1934, the year of his literary debut, he was accepted. He emerged as a defiant aesthetic voice that resisted the highly politicized nature of Yiddish writing in Poland in favor of a joyous, affirmative poetic. In 1935 he appealed to Yiddish modernist aaron glanz-leyeles in New York, who, impressed by Sutzkever's talent, invited him to contribute regularly to his prestigious monthly, In Zikh. Sutzkever's first book, Lider ("Songs," 1937), secured his reputation as a rising international literary star at age 24. The volume includes a sonnet sequence about Siberia that transforms the setting into a landscape of sound, color, and childhood wonder. His second volume, Valdiks ("Of the Forest," 1940), is an ecstatic hymn to nature and celebration of existence. During the initial weeks of the Nazi occupation of Vilna, he composed a cycle of poems while in hiding. He divided his energies in the ghetto between creative work (he received first prize in a ghetto literary competition in 1942) and his underground association with the United Partisans Organization. He also played a critical role in the rescue of treasures from YIVO's archive as part of the secret "Paper Brigade." His wartime writings range from private confessions of sorrow and rage to the crafting of collective myth. He and his wife, Freydke, escaped the liquidation of the ghetto in September 1943, joining Jewish partisan units in the Lithuanian forest. The jewish anti-fascist committee in Moscow, with ilya ehrenberg 's assistance, arranged for his rescue. In the Soviet Union he was greeted as a symbol of Jewish sacrifice in the fight against fascism. After Vilna's liberation, he returned with Yung-Vilne colleague shmerke kaczerginski to dig up treasures hidden by the Paper Brigade, which were sent to YIVO in New York to keep them out of Communist hands. In Moscow, he completed his memoir, Fun Vilner Geto ("From the Vilna Ghetto," 1946), and gathered his wartime poetry for the volumes Di Festung ("The Fortress," 1945) and Lider fun Geto ("Poems of the Ghetto," 1946). Additional writings from and about the Holocaust period include Yidishe Gas ("Jewish Street," 1948) and Di Ershte Nakht in Geto ("The First Night in the Ghetto," 1979). Geheymshtot ("Secret City," 1948), one of   only two book-length epics in his career, crafts a mythopoeic universe of Jews hiding from Nazis in the sewers of Vilna, including the figure of the poet, who lives to bear witness to pain which must be transformed into beauty. The prose symbolism of "Green Aquarium," published in Ode tsu der Toyb ("Ode to the Dove," 1955), explores his faith in poetry as a regenerative force. Lider fun Yam-Hamoves ("Poems from the Sea of Death," 1968) is the official canon of his wartime writings. Sutzkever testified at the Nuremberg trials (1946), and represented Yiddish literature at the International PEN Congress in 1947, the same year he immigrated to Palestine, settling in Tel Aviv with his wife and young daughter. There he established and edited the world's most important postwar Yiddish quarterly, Di Goldene Keyt ("The Golden Chain," 1949–95). His Iife in Israel produced the most sustained engagement with Zionism in all of Yiddish poetry. In Fayer Vogn ("In the Chariot of Fire," 1952) communicates his ecstasy over his encounter with Jewish life reborn in Israel and his anxieties about the way European Jewry will be remembered. The volume In Midber Sinay (1957; In the Sinai Desert, 1987), about the 1956 Sinai Campaign, imagines direct links between the generation of ghetto fighters and Israel's fighting spirit. Gaystike Erd ("Spiritual Soil," 1961; with original woodcuts by Arthur Kolnik) tells of the birth of Israel and the War of Independence. A two-volume edition of his collected writings, Poetishe Verk (1963), appeared in honor of his 50th birthday. His mature period, best represented by Lider fun Togbukh ("Poems from a Diary," 1977), offers meta-poetic and philosophical musings that stake the highest claim for poetry. Additional volumes include Sibir (1953; with illustrations by Marc Chagall; Siberia, 1961), Oazis ("Oasis," 1960), Firkantike Oysyes un Mofsim ("Square Letters and Miraculous Signs," 1968), Tsaytike Penemer ("Ripe Faces," 1970), Di Fidlroyz (1974; The Fiddle Rose, 1990), Dortn vu es Nekhtikn di Shtern ("There Where the Stars Spend the Night, 1979), Fun Alte un Yunge Ksav-Yadn (1982; Laughter Beneath the Forest, 1996), Tsviling-Bruder ("Twin Brother," 1976), Di Nevue fun Shvartsaplen ("The Prophecy of the Inner Eye," 1989), Der Yoyresh fun Regn ("Heir of the Rain," 1992), Baym Leyenen Penimer ("Face Reading," 1993), and Tsevaltike Vent ("Shaky Walls," 1996). Other English translations include Burnt Pearls (1981), and the comprehensive A. Sutzkever: Selected Poetry and Prose (1991). Sutzkever's poetry distinguishes itself by inventive word-play, experimentation with sound and rhythm, mastery of form, and the poet's romantic sense of his artistic calling. For these and many other reasons, he was called the "Ariel" of Yiddish poetry at an early stage in his career, only to be proclaimed "the uncrowned Jewish poet laureate" by one recent critic. Honors include the Itsik Manger Prize (1969), an exhibition in recognition of his life at the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem (1983), and the Israel Prize (1985). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Bickel, Di Brokhe fun Sheynkayt (1969); I. Biletzky, Essays on Yiddish Poetry and Prose Writers (1969), 207–31; J. Leftwich, Abraham Sutzkever: Partisan Poet (1971); Z. Shazar, et al. (eds.), Yoyvel-Bukh tsum Fuftsikstn Geboyrntog fun A. Sutzkever (1963). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Cammy, in: Yiddish After the Holocaust, (2004), 240–65; Di Goldene Keyt, 136 (1993) (Sutzkever issue); B. Harshav, in: A. Sutzkever: Selected Poetry and Prose (1991), 3–23; Y. Mark, Avrom Sutzkevers Poetisher Veg (1974); Sh. Niger, in: Yidisher Shrayber fun Tsvantsikstn Yorhundert (1973), 55–98; A. Novershtern, Avrom Sutzkever Bibliografye (1976); idem, Avrom Sutzkever: Tsum Vern a Benshivim (1983); D. Roskies, Against the Apocalypse (1984), 225–57; D. Sadan, et al. (eds), Yikhes fun Lid (1983); Ruth Wisse, in: Commentary, 76 (1983), 41–8; idem, Abraham Sutzkever: The Uncrowned Jewish Poet Laureate (National Yiddish Book Center recording, 1994); Y. Yanasovitsh, Avrom Sutzkever: Zayn Lid un Zayn Proze (1981) (Justin D. Cammy (2nd ed.)