A.
LUTSKI (LUTZKY) (May 14, 1894-September 13, 1957)
The pen name of Arn Tsuker, he was
born in the town of Dimidovke (Demidovka), Lutsk district, Volhynia, Ukraine,
to a father who worked as a bookkeeper.
He studied in religious primary schools and privately with various
tutors. Already in his childhood at
home, he became absorbed in his love of Jewish music; during the High Holidays,
his father would pray before the cantor’s lectern, and his mother and brothers
and sisters, too, were thoroughly engrossed in playing instruments and
singing. At age twelve he left town for
Lutsk by himself and became there a chorister to a cantor, and people believed
that he would become a great cantor.
Under his mother’s influence, he also studied the violin, but his father
wanted his son to take the cantorial arts seriously and thus he had to give up
being a synagogue chorister. For several
years he studied in a yeshiva; at that time he became acquainted with Yiddish
literature, and around 1908 he began writing Yiddish poetry which he sent to
various editors, but no one published them.
Nonetheless, he received encouragement from Y. L. Perets to continue
writing. After the death of his father, for
a period of time he worked as a bookkeeper in a factory office; later, he was a
teacher of Yiddish, and he especially excelled at teaching students to declaim
short Yiddish poems. In 1913 he departed
for the United States. En route he
stopped in Warsaw, paid a visit to Y. L. Perets there, read to him from his
diary which he had been keeping since 1908, and declaimed his own poems to both
Perets and Noyekh Prilucki. Perets tried
to discourage him from making the trip to America, and even wanted to hire him
as an assistant to handle the bookkeeping for the Warsaw Jewish community, but
he was not dissuaded, and in early 1914 he arrived in New York. In a recommendation letter to A. Almin, Prilucki
introduced him as a “talented poet, actor, and musician.” He worked for several years in New York as a
seller of goods on the street, worked for a time as a teacher, gave violin
lessons, and engaged in other lines of work as well. According to the recommendation from Khayim
Liberman, G. Bublik (editor of Yidishes
tageblat [Jewish daily newspaper]) published a shortened version of a long
poem by Lutski, entitled “Eyder aza lebn, beser shoyn der toyt” (Before such a
life, better to be dead already) in Yidishes
tageblat (March 4, 1917), and this was his literary debut. Through the mediation of A. Glants-Leyeles,
one month later he was living with the poet Y. Adler (aka B. Kovner), and he
read for Adler in his own innovative manner his new poems. Adler brought him together with Ab. Cahan,
editor of Forverts (Forward), who
gave him the new name “A. Lutski,” and over the course of a year’s time, Cahan
published a poem by Lutski every Saturday in Forverts. The young poet was
recognized by the poets and critics of that time, especially the “Yunge” (young
ones) group who designated his poetry a kind of imitation of Avrom Reyzen’s
poetry. Reyzen himself, though, saw in
Lutski a rising, original talent, befriended him, and encouraged him to
write. In 1918 Lutski was drafted into
the American army, took part in the battles at Verdun in France and on the
battlefield turned his line of vision to the task of a poet in a new era. In a letter to Avrom Reyzen, to whom Lutski
left his published poems, before leaving for the war, to have them published in
a book “should the opportunity arise,” Lutski wrote: “After a war like this,
one should write poems unlike those one writes now.” When he returned from war in 1919, he
actually fashioned his own Lutski style, which established him as a unique
figure in modern Yiddish poetry. The Forverts as well as other newspapers
were not terribly excited about them, except for Arn Karlin’s journal Di feder (The pen) in 1919; he published
Lutski’s poems, and no recognition on the part of Lutski’s poet-colleagues came
in the end. He himself wrote of this:
“The young poets consider my prewar poetry as too old and the postwar poems too
young, too new. If I don’t write
something as one ordinarily does, they complain.” A break in relations for Lutski came thanks
to a letter from Bal-Makhshoves to the “Y. L. Perets Writers’ Union” in New
York: “I relay,” wrote Bal-Makhshoves, “greetings to the wonderful poet A.
Lutski, whom I am reading in Di feder.” From that point on, Lutski’s poems appeared
in: Der groyser kundes (The great prankster),
In zikh (Introspective), Nay-yidish (New Yiddish), and Kinder-zhurnal (Children’s magazine),
among others, in New York. In 1921 he
appeared with his own distinctive way of personifying and delivering his poems,
and from that point on he would frequently artistically perform his
improvisations and poems on evenings especially arranged for him. Later, eminent Yiddish artists and performers
would recite his poems. His poems “A
khasene” (A wedding), “Valts” (Waltz), “Baym rebns tish” (At the rebbe’s
table), and “A tepl fasolyes” (A pot of beans), among others, crossed frontiers
and oceans and were read aloud and performed at literary evenings throughout
the Jewish world. In 1927 his first
collection of poems appeared in print: Nemt
es, s’iz gut far aykh (Grab this, it’ll be good for you), “four books in
one volume: (1) alive and happy; (2) songs and dances; (3) a little lonesome;
(4) all together” (New York: Abonentn, 1927), 368 pp., with 35 pp. of “Critics
on A. Lutsi,” published on thin paper, pocket format, bound in leather. His second book, Breyshes inmitn, poetishe filosofye iber vern un tseshtern (In the
middle of Genesis, poetic philosophy concerning becoming and destroying) (New
York, 1932), 224 pp. Later works
include: Portretn fun shrayber, maler,
muziker, aktyorn un arbeter-firer, di pney fun der idishe velt (Portraits
of writers, painters, musicians, actors, and labor leaders, the elite of the
Jewish world) (New York, 1945), 233 pp.; A
bukh tsum lebn (A book to life), “A new book / With new substance /
Idea-song / With something more / Accompanied by joy by A. Lutski” (New York,
1948), 317 pp. Lutski never took up any
other form of work, only his poetry. He
published his books himself (with the assistance of individual admirers of his)
and distributed them himself. In
addition, over the course of many years, he published his poems every Saturday
in Tog (Day), often as well is: Fraye arbeter-shtime (Free voice of
labor), Tsukunft (Future), Frayhayt (Freedom), Der amerikaner (The American), Shriftn
(Writings) edited by Dovid Ignatov, Unzer
bukh (Our book), Nyu yorker vokhnblat
(New York weekly newspaper), Idisher
kemfer (Jewish fighter), and Di
goldene keyt (The golden chain), among others. His work also appeared in M. Basin’s
anthology Amerikaner yidishe poezye
(American Yiddish poetry), with a series of poems (New York, 1940), pp. 470-90;
and Basin, comp., Yidishe poezye af amerikaner
motivn, zamlung (Yiddish poetry on American motifs, collection) (New York:
World Jewish Culture Congress, 1955?), commemorating the 300-year jubilee of
the Jewish community in America; Sh. Meltser’s anthology, Al naharot (To the rivers)
(Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1956); M. Yofe’s anthology, Erets-yisroel
in der yidisher literatur (Israel in Yiddish literature) (Tel Aviv: Perets
Publ., 1961). His poems have also been
translated into English and published in the Sunday literary review in The New York Times. Lutski died of a heart attack while asleep in
his bedroom in New York. One year after
his death, there was published under the supervision of A. Karlin the volume Fun aldos guts (From all that’s good),
“one will find in this book: poetry, philosophy, essays, novellas, portraits,
humor, and satire” (New York: Di feder, 1958), 360 pp. It included: A. Karlin, “Loyb-gezangen fun
farerer tsu dem dikhter a. lutski” (A eulogy from admirers for the poet A.
Lutski), pp. 23-33; the first poems that he published (as Arn Tsuker) in Yidishes tageblat and poems published in
Forverts, 1917-1918; “Vi di kritiker
hobn zikh opgerufn af di shafungen fun a. lutski” (How the critics responded to
the creative work of A. Lutski), pp. 312-33; and a bibliography compiled by
Yefim Yeshurin, pp. 334-55 which was also separately published (New York,
1959). In his connection to Lutsi’s
poetry, Shmuel Niger experienced a certain development over time. In 1921 he saw no more than trickery in
Lutski’s creations. In 1923 Niger wrote:
“A. Litski’s improvisations are poignant, polished, and cultivated.” In 1939 he wrote: “Lutski is the master of the
Yiddish word.” “When Lutski sets out to recount…a
drama of paper in the wind and beans in a pot of boiling water,” noted Shloyme
Bikl, “inanimate nature comes to life poetically and dynamically…. The magic of theatrical movement, of
spectacular drama that Lutski sought to enact from everything and everyone
around him was for him, and occasionally for us, the joyful illusion of his
poem.” “A. Lutski was—in poetic form, in
language, and in innovative content,” wrote Meylekh Ravits, “one of the most
original of Yiddish poets. His poetry—a kind
of poetic pantheism. Everything lives, speaks,
and thinks in his poems; everything is not only alive but also humanized. Minerals, plants, human life, and desert—all of
a piece—the borders gone. The joy and
will of life on the one hand—despair and fatalism on the other. [He was] a singing philosopher, a ‘minstrel’ in
the twentieth century. It is no
coincidence that Lutski was such a masterly interpreter of his own poems, for
he and his poetry were one—body and soul, word and content.”
Sources:
In addition to the bibliography of Y. Yeshurin mentioned above: Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; Shmuel Niger, in Tog (New York) (August 1, 1920; May 21,
1926; February 19, 1928; March 4, 1932; November 13, 1932; January 8, 1933; May
14, 1933; March 26, 1939; October 7, 1940); Niger, in Tsukunft (New York) (June 1928), pp. 361-64; Niger, in Algemeyne entsiklopedye (General
encyclopedia), “Yidn 3” (New York, 1942), col. 169; E. Almi, Literarishe nesies (Literary travels)
(Warsaw, 1931), pp. 95ff; Almi, Mentshn un ideyen (Men and ideas)
(Warsaw, 1933), pp. 222-40; Almi, in Fraye
arbeter-shtime (New York) (December 13, 1957); William Natanson, Inteligent, kunst un kinstler, literatur in
likht fun filosfye (Intellectual, art and artist, literature in light of
philosophy) (Vilna, 1931); Natanson, in Kalifornyer
yidishe bleter (?) (September 1, 1955); Natanson, in Kheshbn (Los Angeles) (January 1957; May 1958); Kultur kvaln, filosofish literarishe eseyen
(Sources of culture, philosophical literary essays) (Buenos Aires, 1959); Z.
Vaynper, Yidishe shriftshteler
(Yiddish writers), vol. 1 (New York, 1933), pp. 147-56; Vaynper, in Di feder (New York, 1945); Sh.
Rozhanski, in Idishe tsaytung (Buenos
Aires) (February 19, 1936; September 17, 1957); Rozhanski, Dos yidishe
gedrukte vort in argentine (The published Yiddish word in Argentina)
(Buenos Aires, 1941), p. 186; M. Basin, Amerikaner
yidishe poezye (American Yiddish poetry) (New York, 1940), pp. 477-90; Dr.
A. Mukdoni, in Morgn-zhurnal (New
York) (October 7, 1945; Mukdoni, in Kultur
un dertsiung (New York) (November 1957); Mukdoni, in Di goldene keyt (Tel Aviv) 29 (1957); Yankev Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (September 4,
1953); Glatshteyn, In tokh genumer
(In essence) (New York, 1956), pp. 297-300; Glatshteyn, in Tsukunft (February 1959); Glatshteyn, In tokh genumen, vol. 2 (New York, 1960), pp. 265-72; A.
Tabatshnik, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (New
York) (January 19, 1955); Tabatshnik, in Zayn
(New York) (March 1958); B. Y. Byalostotski, Kholem un var (Dream
and reality) (New York, 1956), pp. 131ff;
Dr. Shloyme Bikl, in Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(October 13, 1957); Bikl, Shrayber fun
mayn dor (Writers of my generation) (New York, 1958), pp. 58-63; S. Dingol,
in Tog-morgn-zhurnal (September 21,
1957); L. Faynberg, in Tsukunft
(November 1957); E. Fershleyser, Af
shrayberishe shlyakhn, kritishe eseyen (On writerly paths, critical essay)
(New York, 1958), pp. 82-93; B. Rivkin, Yidishe
dikhter in amerike (Yiddish poets in America) (Buenos Aires, 1959), pp.
172-90; Y. Varshavski, in Forverts
(New York) (December 11, 1960); Y. Bronshteyn, in Keneder odler (Montreal) (January 31, 1962); Joseph Leftwich, The Golden Peacock (London, 1961), p.
300.
Zaynvl Diamant
