DANIEL
MARSHAK (August 6, 1872-19370
He was born in Tukum (Tukums),
Latvia. He was the son of an itinerant
schoolteacher who a heretic, prepared in a short period of time to take the
examination to become a private tutor, and thus had to leave the city, settle
with his family in Libave (Liepāja), where he worked as a teacher in a state school,
though he couldn’t remain there long. He
taught his son to make cigarettes, while Daniel’s mother made kvass, and he
(the father) then disappeared, later appearing in Warsaw, traveling through the
towns as a preacher, and on one occasion found himself in a foul business
involved a small synagogue and was killed.
At age ten, Daniel Marshak had to interrupt his studies and support his
family; he built chairs and made cigarettes.
He read a great deal, paid with cigarettes the Christian children who
lent him books in Russian and German. He
later learned the cobbler’s trade. In
1891 he set out for the land of Israel, stopping en route in Warsaw where he met
his father, and was deceived by a family that cheated him out of his travel expenses. He later became a soldier, serving in Kovno
where he became a socialist and was active in the Bund. He later settled in Minsk where until his
last days he worked in his trade (in a shoemaker’s workshop and on the street
corner) and at the same time remained active as a writer. In the late 1890s, he began writing poetry
and novellas in German, and initially in prison where he was thrown for
revolutionary activities (1904), he began to write in Yiddish, debuting in
print (autumn 1905) in Fraynd
(Friend) in St. Petersburg with a story entitled “Aheym” (Homeward). From that point he published a great number
of stories and sketches, the majority involving revolutionaries’ and workers’
lives (recounted in a simple, heartfelt realism), as well as poetry in: Fraynd, Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper), Leben un visnshaft (Life and science), and Veker (Alarm), among others.
In 1913 he published in Fraynd
a long story (about a working girl with a hunchback) under the title “Di
farshtoysene” (The repudiated one); in 1915 he wrote a children’s play entitled
Dos zibetel (The seventh) in Grininke beymelekh (Little green trees)
in Vilna. He also produced a poem, “Der
oytser” (The treasure) for Chaim Zhitlovsky’s Dos naye leben (The new life) (New York) 7 (1909); a poem “Der
vofnshmid” (The arms-maker) in Veker;
and other works. A book of his entitled Dertseylungen (Stories) was brought out
by B. Kletskin in Vilna in 1921 (214 pp.).
He also completed Sh. An-ski’s unfinished drama Tog un nakht (Day and night).
In his second period of writing (in Soviet Byelorussia), he contributed
stories and poetry to an array of journals.
His book-length works include: Tamare
(Tamara), a play in three acts (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publ., 1928), 87 pp.;
Umzister tuml (Useless din), a comedy
in one act (Minsk: Byelorussian Society of Playwrights and Composers, 1930), 40
pp.; Gots geyerke (God’s [female]
peddler), one-act play (Minsk: Central People’s Press of the USSR, 1930), 32
pp.; Di frashtoysene, a novel (Minsk:
State Publ., 1936), 461 pp. In his later
years he also translated into Yiddish from German and Byelorussian: Vitalii
Bianki, Murzuk (Murzuk) (Minsk,
1929); Sergei Timofeevich Grigor’ev, Amba
(??) (Moscow, 1939), 136 pp.; A. Arlov, Krankeytn
bay kelber (Illnesses among calves) (Minsk, 1932), 32 pp.; H. Kobet, Di hute (The glassworks), a contemporary
play in three acts and fourteen scenes (Minsk, 1933), 83 pp.; Mikhas Linkov, Der bayan (The bayan [a kind of Russian accordion]), stories from Byelorussia
(Minsk, 1934), 48 pp.; Af der hoykher
khvalye (On the high cloud), from Byelorussian (Minsk, 1936), 125 pp.;
Dzmitrok Biadulia, Der onkum (The
arrival); and others.
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2;
Zalmen Zilbertsvayg, Leksikon fun yidishn teater (Handbook of the Yiddish
theater), vol. 2 (New York, 1934); Y. Bronshteyn, in Prolit (March-April 1930); B. Orshanski, Di yidishe literatur in
vaysrusland nokh der revolutsye (Yiddish literature in Byelorussia after the revolution)
(Moscow, 1931); Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim
yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet
Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index.
Mortkhe Yofe
[Additional
information from: 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. 235-36.]
Daniel Marshak translated from German into Yiddish Hans Marchwitza's "Sturm auf Essen" :
ReplyDeleteשטורם אף עסען
האנס מארכװיצא; פון דײטש - ד. מארשאק
מינסק : מעלוכע פארלאג פון װײסרוסלאנד.יידסעקטער
1932.- 242, [1] pp.
Shturm af Esen
Hans Markhvitsa; fun daytsh - D. Marshak
Minsk : Melukhe-farlag fun Vaysrusland, Yidsekter
The aboriginals of Amur river region use a word "amba" to call a "tiger"
ReplyDeleteDaniel Marshak translated from Russian into Yiddish Grigor’ev's Amba (orig.: Амба полосатый=Amba stripped).- Moskve-Kharkov-Minsk: Tsentraler felker-farlag fun FSSR. Vaysrusishe opteylung, 1930.- 136 pp.
ReplyDeleteאמבא
סערגײ גריגאריעװ; יידיש - ד. מארשאק
מינסק-מאסקװע-כארקאװ
צענטראלער פעלקער-פארלאג פון פססר.װײסרוסישע אפטײלונג
Daniel Marshak translated from German into Yiddish a collection of stories of different German writers. Orig.: Die Stimme aus Deutschland : Erzalungen (The voice from Germany: stories).
ReplyDeleteא קאל פונ דײטשלאנד
ערצײלונגענ
פון דײטש - ד. מארשאק; הילע קעטע קאלװיצ
מינסק: מעלוכע פארלאג פון װײסרוסלאנד.יידסעקטער
1935.- 76, [4] pp.
A kol fun Daytshland : dertseylungen
fun daytsh - D. Marshak; hile - Kete Kolvits
Minsk: Melukhe-farlag fun Vaysrusland, Yidsekter
Daniel Marshak translated from Russian into Yiddish Olga Trizna's A shuster - a riz (orig: Сапожник-великан=Шавец-волат) (A shoemaker - a gigant) about Leningrad shoefactory "Skorokhod".
ReplyDeleteא שוסטער - א ריז
אלגא טריזנא; יידיש - ד. מארשאק
מינסק : מעלוכע פארלאג פונ װײסרוסלאנד.יידסעקטער
1932.- 48 pp.
A shuster - a riz
O. Trizna; yidish - D. Marshak
Minsk: Melukhe-farlag fun Vaysrusland, Yidsekter
Daniel Marshak translated from Byelorussian Yanka Maur's roman in 2 parts Amok (orig: Амок ).- Minsk.- 1935.- 255, [1] pp.
ReplyDeleteאמאק
ראמאנ אינ 2 טײלנ ; פונ דער צײט פונעמ אופשטאנד אפ יאװע אינ יאר1926
יאנקא מאור ; פונ װײסרוסיש - ד. מארשאק
מינסק : מעלוכע פארלאג פונ װײסרוסלאנד.נאצסעקטער
Amok :
roman in 2 teyln ; fun der tsayt funem ufshtand ag Yave in yor 1926
Yanka Maur ; fun vaysrusish - D. Marshak
Minsk : Melukhe-farlag fun Vaysrusland, Natssekter