shy hand of a Jew, The

MAURYCY (MOSZE) SZYMEL WAS BORN INTO a Jewish community in Lvov in 1903 He graduated from the Jewish Humanistic Gymnasium, and was first published in 1925 in twinklings Lvov's Polish language Jewish newspaper. He published lyrics, children's piece of poetrys short stories, and plays, and became individual of the most devoted co-workers of trices which published many Jewish bards such as Juliusz Wit, Karol Dresdner Anda Eker Stefan Pomer Artur Lauterbach, and Daniel Ihr. These were writers whose work press outed Jewish longings and praised the Jewish national mind "through a poet's words--through Polish words" as Roman Brandstaetter, single of the most well-known members of this change stated.

Szymel's poetry revolves around the relationship between hebrews and Poles as well as other aspects of his life as a israelite living in Poland. He reveals a sturdy feeling of connection to Poland and ofttimes relies on the color and perfume of its landscape and countryside. In "Poland" (1934) he writes:

In the autumn of 1930 Szymel came to Warsaw from Lvov in a shabby coat and beret. He was a man of middle height, a little overweight, with a light-skinned complexion and wide amethystine eyes. Arnold Slucki, a author of poems said that he looked like a typical member of the intelligentsia. Probably, during these years, he began studying the philology of the Polish language at Warsaw University.

Szymel lived the life of a poet-gypsy and, with difficulty, supported himself by dint of writing poetry, literary articles and criticism, weekly round pillars and translations from the Yiddish language. His name was well known in Polish as well as in Polish-Jewish newspapers: Krakow's fresh Journal, Warsaw's Our Review, Opinion, Lector, Helm, Literature Voice, and Warsaw Newspaper.

In the years 1930-1939 Szymel's creativity reached a peak. He published three volumes of his own poems, turn back Home (1931), Suburban Fiddle (1932) and Lyrical Evening (1935) These piece of poetrys were mainly about history, memories of his family (especially his mother), life in the Jewish ghetto, ero and his personal feelings toward Poland. The critic Karol Wictor Zawodzinski praised Szymel's "real virtuosity of rhythm" During this period of time, Szymel also published six works of Yiddish translations. Slowly, as he began to expres himself more in the Yiddish language, he became a bilingual poet

Though his reputation was established as a israelite writing in Polish, he decided to write his metrical compositions to Jews in Yiddish, which he signed with his native name, Mosze (Moses) He published these metrical compositions in Hajnt, and in sum of two units monthly magazines, Globus and Szriftin. He later bring togethered them as a book of piece of poetrys entitled Sadness in Me (Mir iz umetil), and published them in 1936 They were reprinted in 1937 to be paid to Szymel's increasing popularity.

In 1939 after World War II broke on the outside he succeeded in escaping from Warsaw to his hometown, Lvov where, below Soviet occupation, he published his fresh poems written in Yiddish in Soviet Literature in 1940 When the Germans took above Lvov, he became an office worker in Judenrat and is believed to have shared the fate of nearly all israelites living in the city--he was manslaughtered in the concentration camp in Janowski, in 1942 This version of his death is generally accepted rather than another, which reports that he was homicide ed in the Warsaw ghetto. Since his death, no work of his poetry has been published, either in Polish or Yiddish. His work has solitary appeared in anthologies, and personal as well as bibliographical information about him has frequently been mistaken.

Szymel's most prestigious metrical composition as acknowledged by critics, is "Genealogia," which was published in sum of two units widely circulated anthologies published in Warsaw: Stanislaw Grochowiak and Jaroslaw Maciejewski's Polish rhyme (1973); and in Ryszard Matuszewski and Severyn Pollak's Polish verse 1934-1939 (1962).

His individual metrical compositions have been translated into Hebrew and published in literary reviews and in anthologies in Tel Aviv. These metrical compositions were translated by Dov Sadan (1936) A. A. Fajans (1937) and Gabriel Talpir (1938) Since it was before the war, Szymel likely knew about these translations because he was a shut up friend of Sadan (Sztok), who repeatedly wrote about Szymel's creativity in his Hebrew and Yiddish magazines.

Szimszon Melcer translated and included Szymel's four metrical compositions in his anthology, Al naharot, published in 1956 and reprinted in 1977 Also, Mosze Basok translated and included three of Szymel's metrical compositions in his Hebrew anthology culled Jewish Poetry (Miwchar szirat jidisz) in 1963 Szoszana Raczynska translated forty of Szymel's piece of poetrys and published them in a bilingual Polish-Hebrew edition, in 1995 in Israel.

The collection in which these metrical compositions will appear, Native Foreigner: pick outed Poems 1926-1939 by Maurycy Szymel shows the first English translation of Maurycy Szymel's work.

ANIELA AND JERZY GREGOREK have co-translated many Polish author of poemss including works by Boguslaw Zurakowski, Zbigniew Czuchajowski, and Adam Ziemianin.

Copyright World metrical composition Incorporated Sep/Oct 2003

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