MOYSHE
TEYF (1904-December 27, 1966)
He was born in Minsk,
Byelorussia. Following the Bolshevik
revolution, he became a laborer in a wallpaper factory. He studied in his free time, graduating from
an evening school for working youth, and he attended the Yiddish department of
the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. He was
active in Komyug ([Jewish] Communist youth association) and began writing
poetry in 1920, some of which was included in his book Lider un poemen (Poetry). In
1924 he was one of the founders of the young writers’ group associated with the
journal Der yunger arbeter (The young
worker). He published his poems in: Oktyabr (October) in Minsk; Shtern (Star) and Royte velt (Red world) in Kharkov; Emes (Truth) and Eynikeyt
(Unity) in Moscow; as well as in the literary almanacs, Atake, almanakh fun roytarmeyishn landshuts-literatur (Attack,
almanac of the Red Army’s national defense literature) of 1934 and Sovetishe vaysrusland, literarishe zamlung (Soviet
Byelorussia, literary collection) of 1935, both in Minsk. Among his books: Hesele fun shlosgesele (Hesele from castle alley), a poem for
children (Moscow: Emes, 1932), 32 pp.; Lider
un poemen (Minsk: State Publishers of Byelorussia, 1933), 272 pp.; Parizer komune (Paris Commune), poem for
children, cover and illustrations by Leyzer Ran (Minsk: State Publishers of
Byelorussia, 1933), 19 pp.; Tsuzamen,
kinder-zamlung (Together, children’s anthology) (Minsk: State Publishers of
Byelorussia, 1935), 119 pp.; Proletarke,
shvester mayne, novele (My sister the proletarian, a novella),
illustrations by D. Kipnis (Minsk: State Publishers of Byelorussia, 1935), 63
pp.; Toyt oder royt (Dead or red),
poetry (Minsk: State Publishers of Byelorussia, 1937), 64 pp.; Milkhome-lider (War poems) (Moscow:
Emes, 1947). Oydserveylts, lider, balades, poemes (Selections: songs, ballads,
poems) (Moscow: Sovetski pisatel, 1965), 156 pp.; Lider, balades, poemes
(Songs, ballads, poems) (Moscow: Sovetski pisatel, 1985), 63 pp. His work was also represented in: Kep,
lider zamlung (Heads, poetry
collection) (Minsk, 1926); and S. Polonski’s 10 pyonerishe lider (Ten pioneering poems) (Minsk, 1929). His published translations in book form
include: Friedrich Schiller, Vilhelm tel
(William Tell) (Minsk: State Publishers of Byelorussia, 1935), 143 pp.; Walter Raleigh, Ayvenho (Ivanhoe) (Minsk: State
Publishers of Byelorussia, 1937), 413 pp.; Charles de Coster, Til oylenshpigel (Till Eulenspiegel [original: La Légende et les Aventures héroïques, joyeuses et
glorieuses d’Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak au pays de Flandres et ailleurs]) (Moscow: Emes, 1938), 202
pp. He also translated the drama Untergang (Downfall) by Babel for the Minsk Yiddish theater. Teyf took part in WWII and for a long period
of time as an artilleryman at a frontline position. Both his wife and child died in the Minsk
ghetto. He was arrested in 1937 and sent
to the front shortly after being released in 1941; he was again arrested in
1948 at the time of the Soviet regime’s attack on all of Yiddish culture. He emerged alive, and was later rehabilitated,
from the Stalinist extermination of Yiddish literature and its writers in
Russia, and he was living in Moscow until his death. In 1958 there appeared in Russia a
translation of a collection of Teyf’s poetry and ballads. He contributed as well to Sovetish heymland (Soviet homeland)
(Moscow) 1 (July-August 1961) and served on its initial editorial board. In addition to Russian, his writings have
been translated into Byelorussian, Hebrew, and other languages.
Sources:
M. Litvakov, In umru (Disquiet), vol. 2 (Moscow, 1926); B. Orshanski,
preface to Kep, lider zamlung
(Heads, poetry collection) (Minsk, 1926); Y. Dobrushin, Sovetishe dikhtung (Soviet poetry) (Moscow, 1935); N. Mayzil, Dos yidishe shafn un der yidisher shrayber in
sovetnfarband (Jewish creation and the Yiddish writer in the Soviet Union)
(New York, 1959), see index; A. Sabar, in Davar
(Tel Aviv) (Siven 18 [= June 2], 1961), including a Hebrew translation of Teyf’s
poem “Kikhlekh un zemelekh” (Cookies and rolls); Yankev, Glatshteyn, in Idisher kemfer (New York) (September 29,
1961).
Leyzer Ran
[Additional
information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon
fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New
York, 1986), col. 283; Chaim Beider, Leksikon
fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish
writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York:
Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 163-65.]
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