Lithuania’s Odilė publishing house has translated and printed a Lithuanian translation of Yiddish writer Moshe Kulbak’s book Mesiekh ben Efrayim under the title Mesijas, Efraimo sūnus. The description by internet vendor knygynas.biz says:

Classic of Lithuanian and world Jewish literature Moishe Kulbak (1896-1937) is known to Lithuanian readers as the author of the wonderful poem Vilne. Finally for the first his prose has appeared in Lithuanian, the novel Messiah ben Efraim. This is one of the most famous and most original of Kulbak’s Yiddish works. It was written in Berlin in 1922 and is suffused with magical realism, something which hadn’t been seen before. The author’s vital and innovative imagination connects surrealistic and expressionistic images here with the oral tradition and strong mystical spirit of Lithuanian Jews. This ensemble recalls the impressive paintings of Marc Chagall.

The novel Messiah ben Efraim is based on a Jewish legend which comes from the Talmud that there are always 36 hidden just men living in the world without whose unseen actions the world would pass away [lamed-vavnik tzadikim or lamed-vavniki]. Kulbak creates a story about these holy people living in historical Lithuanian [Grand Duchy] lands–in Belarus and Žemaitija. Elderly miller Benya, Simkha the rabbi who ran away from his community, the philosopher-bum Gimpel, Christian sauna operator Kiril–these souls trapped in the world seeking the light, guided a strange unease embark on a journey without any explicable destination. During this fantastic trip filled with humor and mystical experiences the cause of this unease driving on the travellers gradually comes into focus: it’s the impending advent of the Messiah to the land of Lithuania.

Kulbak’s novel Messiah ben Efraim is made up of smoldering segments which can be read as well as separate novellas or as prose poetry, a mosaic drawing the contemporary reader into a modern literary game. At the same time it is a picture of the depths of apocalyptic philosophy of courageous poetic strokes which remains to the present day telling and moving.

Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, the translator, said: “This novel utters the most profound words affecting human thinking.”

Translator: Mindaugas Kvietkauskas
softcover, 156 pages
ISBN: 9786098222456
Odilė publishing house, 2022
Cost: €10.60

Vendor’s website here.

Also on sale at the eureka! bookstore at Daukanto square no. 2/10 in Vilnius, next to Cathedral Square.

Yiddish original available for free here.