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Hard cover, $26.95
Paperback, $19.95
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The Last Lullaby – Poetry from
the Holocaust
"A collection of great poetry — by any standard
— by human beings who produced it under nightmare circumstances.
. . .The central value of this book is to remind us that the
tools for such redemption are charity, love, bravery and alertness
of spirit."
The Last Lullaby is the culmination of Aaron Kramer's fifty
year devotion to translating the poetry of the Holocaust. The
full horror of the genocide and the sublime spirit of those
who resisted are given voice on these pages. These poets —
originally writing in Yiddish — speak from the ghettos,
way-stations, death camps and partisan forests.
Placing each group in its historic
and literary context with comprehensive introductory essays,
Professor Kramer presents works mostly unavailable in English
— until now. For the first time readers can become familiar
with poets who experienced the horrors of the ghettos and
the death camps and survived including Soviet poets and American
poets who were forever transformed by the Holocaust. The book
also includes the first published translation of the 1944
Terezin opera Der kaiser von Atlantis.
The Last Lullaby
is a testament to the richness of a half-annihilated language
that, in the pain of its survivors, was made more beautiful
than ever before. Unlike most other current translators, Kramer
insists on maintaining the music of the original Yiddish,
the often "folkish" cadence and rhyme that are a precious
part of these poems' legacy.
The Last Lullaby
Edited & Translated by Aaron Kramer
A moving collection of poetry created by courageous people
living during the darkest
of times.
Syracuse University Press,1998.
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