Nelson Mandela 1918 to 2013

What I Saw - Reports from Berlin 1920 to 1933 by Joseph Roth - two articles - translated and introduced by Michael Hoffman

Last month most of my reading, as my participation in German Literature III, I read a number of works by Joseph Roth (1894 to 1939).  I said in a post I did on the American holiday of Thanksgiving that I was thankful that I will not die never having read Joseph Roth. I intend to read as much of his work as I can. It looks like there are seven kindle books from Roth I have not yet read and I will start with them with the goal of completing them in 2014.  Michael Hoffman says there seems to be a Roth revival under way so maybe by 2015 more will be out as Kindles.  Pretty much all I know of the life of Roth comes from introductions by Michael Hoffman. (You can read the introductions for free in the sample kindle editions.) There is no English language biography of Roth.  I hope Hoffman will write one and I wish so much I could do one myself.  

Professionally Roth was very much a newspaper man. For most of his adult life he wrote what were once called "feuilletons".  I confess this was a new to me word (my blog editing software insists there is no such word).  It basically means an article in the "special interest" section of a news paper devoted to reviews and features.  Roth was a master of this.  From 1920 to 1933 he wrote many such articles for Berlin newspapers.  He left Berlin when the Nazis came to power.  (They burned as many of his books as they could find and murdered many of his readers.)

There are thirty four articles in the collection.  I will read all of them and probably post at least briefly on each article.  It might take a year or more.  Or it might take a month.  

"Going For a Walk" 1920

In this quote, from the first article in the collection, "Going For a Walk", you can see much of the acute perceptivity and the deeply haunted sensibility of Roth.  He is walking in the Jewish quarter of Berlin.  He observes a woman whose primary business is selling shoe laces and dabbles in stocks on the side being taken seriously in a conversation with a noted financier.  There are deep rooted connections in the work of writers like Roth and his patron Stefan Zweig to Yiddish literature. Zweig, born into real wealth,  represents culture at its highest form.  Zweig and Roth were both at heart Austro-Hungarian Jews, both, as did Yiddish writers like Itzak Manger, had a deep love for the reading life.  Some say this is historically derived from the place of written texts like the Torah in Jewish culture.   "Going for A Walk" was a brilliant first selection.  Much of what Roth wrote was based on observations he made walking in the poorer parts of Berlin.  He was able to see in a seller of shoe laces a woman on an intellectual par with a great financier, to see it with out irony and to see through the minds of the fools who would see this as a comic scene.

"The Orient on Hirtenstrasse" 1921

The quote above is really almost a summing up of Roth's ethos.  In the 1920 and the 1930s, Yiddish Jews were seen by "European Jews" as somehow primitive and almost were embarrassed by them. They had come to see the "Oriental" quality of people of Yiddish heritage as breeding a hatred for Jews so they tried to separate themselves from them, orientalizing them (think Edward Said).  If you feel I am wrong on this, I claim no expertise, then read Hannah Arendt).  The article brings the street totally to life for us.

It is impossible, for me at least, to read these two articles without flashing forward to the Nazis and the Holocaust.  

Please share your experience with Roth and the things he wrote about with us.  

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"A Kind Man and an Orphan" Sonya. - from The Anjali House Writing Project

Sue Guiney's Introductory Post  - contains important links 

My Overview of the Project

My Q and A with Dana Hui Lim author of Mother and the Tiger- A Memoir of the Killing Fields. - essential background information

Sonya's story (all writers are using pen names) helps us understand Anjali House and its wonderful work.

"A Kind Man and an Orphan Kid" by Sonya

   One day, one boy called Kim walked on the street and was crying. But then his luck changed. He met one foreigner and his name was Sam. He is a manager of one organization called Anjali House in Siem Reap. He is a very kind man. He always helps the kids who have no family or are poor. When he met the boy he asked him about his family and his relatives. The boy said he had no mother and father because they died from illness and because they had nothing to eat. After he heard the boy’s story he had much pity for him and he asked the boy to go to study and live with him. The boy was very happy and went with him.

   After he stayed there for one month he looked a lot better. He had good clothes, he had something to eat, place to stay and he also had a lot of friends there. Sam is a good person. He helped Kim to study from start until finish. Kim is a good boy. He studied very hard and when he was 18 he finished high

school and continued studying at university. Sam always helped him and other kids. Four years later Kim finished university and his hope was to work as a doctor because he wanted to help people like Sam had. He studied and at that time he also tried to help himself by working a part-time job. He didn’t expect

Sam to help with everything because he had a goal and hope.Eight years was not so long for him.

   Then one day was the day he graduated. He finished and he went to work as a doctor. He was very excited and happy. Sam was also very happy because the kid that he tried to help got success in his life. He didn’t want to get anything back from Kim. After that, Kim went to work as a doctor and he helped kids and old people. He never forgot how Sam helped him and kept him like his father. The last words he said to Sam were ”Thank you.”

We do not have any biographical data on Sonya.

"The Story of the Noble Man's Mustaches" by Itzak Manger The Yale Yiddish Library Project

Itzak Manger is one of the acknowledged masters of Yiddish literature.  (There is some background information on Manger in my prior post on him.)   He came up with a brilliant idea.  He wanted to write a collection of ten short stories modeled on Boccaccio's Decameron.  It was to be set in an underground bunker in Nazi Europe in which Jews from ten different areas were hiding from certain death in the concentration camps. Each of the ten was to help pass the time by telling a story depicting his culture.  Sadly he only completed two stories but happily Yale has included both of them in its wonderful anthology of his work.  

"The Noble Man's Mustaches" reads very much like an old folk tale of the cruelty of the Polish nobility toward Jews.  The story centers on a Jewish barber and a viviously anti-Semitic Polish noble whose greatest pride is his grand mustache.  The barber has a dominating abusive wife.  He takes a lot of pleasure in her annual child births and the great pain this brings her.  The nobleman sends for the barber to trim his hair prior to a wedding feast. The nobleman may have murdered his wife.  The barber accidentally cuts of a large part of the man's mustache.  The nobleman yells out "give that filthy Jew 150 lashes".  When he dies from this the nobleman says "that will teach the Jews their place".  The barber's widow, left with no support and many children, place a curse on the nobleman man's mustache.  The ending could be straight out of a collection of old folk tales.  I liked this a lot.  

"Helping People" a Beautiful Poem by Donna from The Anjali House Writing Project

Sue Guiney's Introductory Post  - contains important links 

My Overview of the Project

My Q and A with Dana Hui Lim author of Mother and the Tiger- A Memoir of the Killing Fields. - essential background information

In the poem "Helping People" we see a wonderful open hearted expression of compassion.  Themes of floods recur in the works of the workshop participants.  I am honored to share this work.  Like all participants, Donna (a pen name is used in all posts to protect the privacy of participants) is in the opening stages of learning English.

"Helping People" by Donna

When I travel to this country

I see floods come up and I feel unhappy

I see the water in their houses

People are moving their house; they help their child to go

away

I am still sorry for them and afraid

I want to help them, but I don’t have money

Now I have money, I can help them

I am still happy when I see their problems decrease

People can build their houses

Their child can study.

Donna, age 14

One day I went to an exhibition with the Anjali group and the teacher admired my work. This was the 6th time that I got a compliment for taking photos. I felt very happy. This was the first time that I heard some people from Unicef say to me that I am good at photography. When I heard that I felt very happy because they gave me a big hope.

Feel free to comment on any of the project posts. 

I am very proud to be hosting this event.

"Friendship" by Max - A post from the Anjali House Writing Project

Sue Guiney's Introductory Post  - contains important links 

My Overview of the Project

My Q and A with Dana Hui Lim author of Mother and the Tiger- A Memoir of the Killing Fields. - essential background information

"Friendship" by Max

 

   One year ago, there were two friends. Their names were Dararand Socheata. They are always helping each other when they are having a problem, like when Darar went to school he walked on the road next to the school. He saw Socheata crying in the garden and he went to Socheata and asked him what happened.Socheata said, “Yesterday I went to the market to buy some vegetables. After I buy some vegetables I came back to the house to cook the food for my grandmother. When the

food was cooked, I gave it to my grandmother. When my grandmother ate the food she became sick and my mother blamed me and fought with me and said Socheata, you always make everybody say you are a jerk.”

   Darar told Socheata, “When your mother blames you, you need to say sorry to your mother and explain to her what happened with your grandmother.”

   Socheata told Darar, “I can not because my mother said I can not stay in the house.”

   Darar said, “Socheata, I will go to your house with you to ask your mother.”

   When Darar went to the house he saw Socheata’s mother.Socheata stayed in the room when Darar talked to his mother. And Socheata talked to his mother, too, and said, “I am very sorry that my grandmother was sick. I am sorry, Mother.”

   And his mother said, “I am sorry, too. Son, I love you. Do you want to eat some rice?”

 

 

 

Max, age 17 (pen name)

 

Six years ago my school had a study tour. We went to KulenMountain. There were 34 people. We went by bus. When we arrived there we swam, we enjoyed singing and swimming and they took a lot of pictures. We were very happy. After we swam we had lunch in the forest. After we had lunch we relaxed. At 1 o’clock we climbed the mountain, we prayed to the god to get good luck and we played around the pagoda. After that we went to the hotel and we had dinner in the restaurant. After we had dinner we went to Sixty Road and played some games. At 11 o’clock we came back to the hotel and went to sleep. In the morning at 7 o’clock we came back home. We were very happy.

Mel u 

"Life Can Change" by Carmen - An Anjali House Writing Project Story

I found Carmen's story very moving.  Read with the care and respect it requires, it brings out much of the anguish and hopes of the children of the survivors of terrible years of the killing fields of Cambodia.

Like all the authors, she is in the opening stages of learning English. 

Sue Guiney's Introductory Post  - contains important links 

My Overview of the Project

My Q and A with Dana Hui Lim author of Mother and the Tiger- A Memoir of the Killing Fields. - essential background information 

" Life Can Change" by Carmen

 

   Ten years ago there was one big family. They were a rich family. In their house there was a grandmother. Her name wasPov. The father’s name was Litto. The mother’s name was Soy and they had a son named Sokthai. Sokthai was a good student. He studied hard. But then his father started to drink wine andSokthai didn’t study hard any more. He was too lazy to go to school. He always went to play games. His mother worked

hard.

   One day Sokthai’s father went to drink wine. When he came back home he was drunk. He started fighting with his wife for their money. Grandmother said to her son, “Can you look at your wife. Your wife is always going to work. You have to go to work like your wife.” Sokthai felt sad. He went to drink wine like his father.

   When he travelled from the shop that sells wine he saw his friends. He said hello to his friends, but they didn’t say anything to him. Sokthai got very angry with his friends. He started to fight, and he killed one of his friends. Then the police came to get him to go to the prison. He had to stay at the prison for 5 years.

   When the grandmother heard that news, she got sick and she died. The father thought, “I have to change my bad ways.” Finally he changed his bad ways to good ways. He went to work and after five years his son came home from the prison. Now they are very happy. They live and love each other for the rest of their lives.

Carmen, age 14 (author supplied data-all authors are using pen names to protect their privacy)

 

One day I went to the market in my village not in Siem Reap. I went there to buy some food. When I arrived I had an accident with a motor. That motor hit me and I hurt my head. The man who drove the motor gave me some money to buy a tiger balm and I said thank you to him. That time I was hurt very badly, but I took the money that he gave me to buy a tiger balm. I took it to play a game called Pushing Shoes. I lost the game.

When I went back home my mother asked ‘where is the food?’,and I said I lost the money. She said some bad words to me and she gave money to me again. The next day I told her about the game I played and she got very angry with me. I promised her that I would stop playing that game in my future.