For a moment all was silent and motionless, then Rab’ Shachneh bowed
down his head, and Vasily emitted a sharp frightful cry. All of the
five toes and part of his foot had disappeared into Rab’ Shachneh’s
mouth. The two rows of teeth sank deep into the dirty, sweaty flesh.
What followed was wild and lurid, like an evil, revolting dream.
The peasants struck Rab’ Shachneh with their booted feet. They kicked
him with such fury that it resounded loud and hollow like an empty
barrel. They pulled out his beard in handfuls. They dug their nails
into his eyes and tore them out. They searched out the most sensitive
parts of his body and ripped out pieces. His body shivered, trembled,
bent and twisted. And the two rows of teeth pressed on convulsively
closer and closer, and something cracked inside the mouth, the teeth,
the bones, or perhaps both. All this while, Vasilinka raved, shrieked,
screeched like a stuck pig.
How long this lasted, the peasants did not know. They had taken no
notice of the time. It was only when they saw that Rab’ Shachneh’s body
no longer moved that they stopped at last. A shudder shook them from
head to foot when they looked into his face.
His torn out eyes hung loose near the bloody sockets. His face was
no longer recognizable; while what was left of his beard hung in
blood-congealed strands. The dead teeth, with a piece of the foot still
between them, glared like those of a dead wolf.
Vasilinka still wriggled, no longer upon the chair, but upon the
floor. His body was twisted like a snake, and from his throat came
long-drawn-out, hoarse sounds. His gray eyes grew large, dim and
glassy. It was evident that he had lost his mind.
“God help us,” the terrified peasants screamed, as they fled from the
house.
Out in the street, the pogrom, in all its beastly ferocity, was still
raging, and amidst the many noises, no one heard the broken cries of
the living man who was slowly expiring within the jaws of the dead man.
--Translated by Israel Solon.
YIDDISH LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
The following books, translated (with one exception) from the Yiddish
by Isaac Goldberg, are procurable through the HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY,
Girard, Kansas, at the prices indicated, postpaid.
DAVID PINSKI
Huebsch, _Three Plays_ (Isaac Sheftel; The Dumb Messiah; The Last Jew)
$1.65.
Huebsch, _Ten Plays_ (The Phonograph; The God of the Newly Rich Wool
Merchant; A Dollar; The Cripples; The Inventor and the King’s Daughter;
Diplomacy; Little Heroes; The Beautiful Nun; Poland--1919; The
Stranger) $2.15.
Huebsch, _The Treasure_ (Translated by Ludwig Lewisohn) $1.40.
Huebsch, _The Wives of King David_.
SHOLOM ASCH
Luce, _Mottke the Vagabond_ (A novel of the underworld of Warsaw.)
$2.65.
Dutton, _Uncle Moses_ (A novel of the East Side suppressions and
aspirations.) $2.15.
_The God of Vengeance_ (Pocket Series No. 416 Revised Edition.)
LEON KOBRIN
_Brentano, A Lithuanian Village_ (An exceptionally well-done idyll of
the old world summoned to the new.) $1.90.
PLAYS OF THE YIDDISH THEATRE
Luce, _First_ and _Second Series_, each containing six one-act plays by
Pinski, Asch, Hirschbein, Kobrin, Sholom Aleikhem, Levin, $1.65 each.
PEREZ HIRSCHBEIN
Luce, _The Haunted Inn_ (A Play in Four Acts) $1.65.
YEHOASH (Sol Bloomgarden)
Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia. _The Feet of the Messenger._
(Travels of the noted poet from New York to Palestine and back.)
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
- Clear typos and wrong punctuation were corrected.
- Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of their sections.
- Text between _underscores_ represent italics.