A Note on the "Yinglish Strophes" Series, and: Yinglish Strophes 17, and: Yinglish Strophes 18
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A Note on the “Yinglish Strophes” Series
The Yiddish impact on English is documented remarkably well by Leo J. Rosten in his books, including his outrageous work of fiction, The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N. He uses the term "Yinglish" to refer to particular words that enter English, often with some modification. I employ it to signify how Yiddish syntax and sensibility modify standard English structures.
My grandmother Ethel Landsman (1888–1986) was forced by pogroms to leave her native Odessa, Russia in 1905. She settled in New York City, where she met my grandfather Louis. They spoke Yiddish to one another as much as they spoke Yiddish-inflected English. Recognizing her as a bearer of my Jewish cultural inheritance—though I have long embraced Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism—I jotted down her spoken and written phrases and sentences for nearly a decade.
The versions of "The Ethel Landsman Poems" in my first two books of poetry, Surprise Visit (New York: Domestic Press, 1993) and Gossip (East [End Page 94] Rockaway, NY: Marsh Hawk Press, 2001), collage her utterances, which sometimes focus on her experience as an immigrant Jew in the U.S. In my next book, After Taxes (Marsh Hawk, 2004), I began the "Yinglish Strophes" series to avoid focusing exclusively on Ethel's "voiceprint" so that, while continuing to foreground multiple significations stemming from Yinglish syntax, I could add my own discourse and concerns and include hints of social contexts available only after her passing. Of course, I continue to utilize some of Ethel's phrases and attitudes. Among other things, through disruption, I want the poems to entertain varying perspectives on interpersonal and inter-group conflict and negotiation.
After Taxes includes the first six "Yinglish Strophes." Poems 7–8 are published in my 2006 electronic chapbook, Staccato Landmark (Chicago: Beard of Bees), while poems 9–12 appear in No Appointment Necessary (Moria Poetry, 2006). Heather McHugh and David Lehman chose poem 9 for inclusion in The Best American Poetry 2007 (Farmington Hills, MI: Scribner's). Clarity and Other Poems (Marsh Hawk, 2008) reprints poems 7 and 8 and adds 13–15.
Yinglish Strophes 17
She was too long on winters
to another bundle strap along. Suchwaiting they stood through financial. Why
look old? You get soon old.He should help it exhaust? Speedtrain when it could be a
buggy like Odessa my morning. Terribleyour brother fallen: he doesn't mentioned(his parents) and that says. Fromhair plant the face it wouldn't
authority you. Ancient me's nota clout with the Kennedys—and nobody. More equal onpeers? Goes you disagree thema jot three moments off. [End Page 95]
Each child wants retarding likeany soul else. Just noworded. Now: not any him.Give it the razor makespleasant: a boychick this mirrorwill turn soon back.
Yinglish Strophes 18
Thank a million for
keeping your promise, sending.Adorable and looks like
Joe. All day longI am looking oneach. And satisfy—Dad
is very impatient—myselfthe time been. Alwayshunger? I hope hehas the right formula.
There isn't a millionaireenough dollars to purchasesuch a magnificence. Donot fret the responsible nervous:she didn't know neither, Sylvia.
Thomas Fink's fifth book of poetry, Clarity and Other Poems, was published by Marsh Hawk Press in Spring, 2008. His chapbook, Generic Whistle-Stop (Portable Press at Yo Yo Labs) appeared in 2009. A Different Sense of Power (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001) is his most recent book of criticism, and in 2007, he and Joseph Lease co-edited "Burning Interiors": David Shapiro's Poetry and Poetics. His work is included in The Best American Poetry 2007 (Scribner's). Fink's paintings hang in various collections.
