The Lost World of Jewish Artist Issachar Ber Ryback by Gabriel Rosenstock.

 

A Sweater for the Tayfel

by Gabriel Rosenstock  

Ryback was a magnificent artist. He depicted his Jewish homeland in Ukraine much like I. B. Singer wrote about the Jewish way of life in Poland and the New World in his unforgettable short stories and novels.

     Had he lived longer, Issachar Ber Ryback (1897-1935) would surely have become as well known today as his great contemporary, Marc Chagall.

              In A Sweater for the Tayfel, an unpublished  picture book for children 8-12, I respond with bilingual   haiku to images from the lost world of Ryback.

              For the most part, Yiddish was the language of the village life depicted in Ryback’s paintings and lithographs. (The word ‘tayfel’ in the title means ‘devil’). I, too, write in a threatened language, Irish.

http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/939_bigPic.jpg
gnóthach gnóthach

gnóthach i gcónaí –

an búistéir seamlais

busy busy busy

always busy –

slaughterer

http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/941_bigPic.jpg

liúdráin

is giob geab –

cuileoga dubha ó thigh go tigh

rumour and gossip –

black flies buzzing
from house to house

http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/947_bigPic.jpg
domhan trína chéile . . .

bíonn gá ag an ngabhar fiú

le scíth

 

topsy-turvy world . . .

even a goat

needs a rest

http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/948_bigPic.jpg

sráid chaol

á siúl ag an mbó –

cá bhfuil sí, dar léi féin, san Ind?

 

a cow walks up

a narrow street –

where does she think she is, India?

http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/949_bigPic.jpg
is breá torannach iad

na bróga sin aici –

bean an raibí

a fine clatter she makes

in her fancy shoes –

the rabbi’s wife

http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/950_bigPic.jpg

cniotáil! de shíor ag cniotáil!

cad i gcomhair?

geansaí don Diabhal?

knitting!

what is it with the knitting?

a sweater for the Tayvel?
http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/960_bigPic.jpg
is ait an saol é . . .

grágaíl na gcearc

‘sóisialachas!’ ‘ainrialachas!’

it’s a strange world . . .

hens cackling

‘socialism!’ ‘anarchism!’

http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/968_bigPic.jpg
domhan míreanna mearaí –

conas ionad a fháil
dúinn go léir?

our jigsaw world –

how do we all

fit in?

http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/488_bigPic.jpg

níl sé i bhfad ar an saol

go leor le foghlaim aige –

asailín

he’s not long in this world

so much yet to learn –

little donkey
http://comite-ryback.org/prdPics/438_bigPic.jpg
tithe is daoine . . .

cuid acu díreach

cuid acu cam

houses and people . . .

some straight

some crooked

http://www.artnet.com/artists/issachar-ber-ryback/portrait-of-the-rabbi-E69SXM2XOYd3xckrOsj6cw2

an raibí  . . .

sáite i leabhar éigin

an t-am ar fad

 

the rabbi  . . .

nose always stuck

in a book

 

http://www.artnet.com/artists/issachar-ber-ryback/rabbi-holding-torah-ZKPL3PkPY09LLekOFzMhQw2

ardaítear an Tórá  . . .

doirteann solas rúnda

ó na briathra

 

the Torah is lifted . . .

light pours secretly

from the words

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