Sarah Ponichtera Brings Early Isaac Bashevis Singer Story to English Readers

Sarah Ponichtera, Ph.D., assistant dean for Special Collections and the Gallery at Seton Hall University, has contributed a new English translation to In the World of Chaos: Selected Early Works, 1925–1937, a recently published collection of early writings by Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Published by Academic Studies Press, the volume brings together short stories, sketches, literary criticism, memoirs and interviews from Singer’s early career, much of it appearing in English for the first time. The collection offers readers a window into Singer’s development as a writer during the vibrant period of Yiddish literary and cultural life in interwar Poland.

Ponichtera translated the short story “The Bitter End,” beginning work on the piece in 2017, shortly before she joined Seton Hall.

“This book has been in the works for many years,” Ponichtera said. “The project is an ambitious and important undertaking in that it brings to the English-speaking world for the first time the early writing of Isaac Bashevis Singer."

Singer, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978, became one of the best-known Yiddish writers among English-language readers. He was closely involved in translating many of his later works, frequently revising them in the process. His estate considers those translations “second originals,” making his untranslated early works in Poland a distinctive opportunity for contemporary translators and scholars.

The new collection places those writings in the context of the Yiddish intellectual world in which Singer began his career, combining previously untranslated fiction with criticism, memoir and interviews with fellow writers and cultural figures.

For Ponichtera, the project also connects to the career she ultimately pursued in libraries, archives and special collections.

“Translating this piece was especially meaningful for me, because it was through working with the Isaac Bashevis Singer papers at the Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, that I first became interested in archives,” she said.

While at the Harry Ransom Center, Ponichtera volunteered to help identify correspondents in Singer’s Yiddish-language letters. Working directly with the archival material provided a new perspective on the celebrated author and helped shape her professional interests.

“Reading those letters and seeing the person behind the famous literary reputation was a revelation for me and drew me to the career I ultimately joined after finishing my Ph.D.,” she said.

Translating “The Bitter End” presented its own scholarly challenges. Set in Poland and grounded in a traditional way of life, the story incorporates terminology for objects and customs that have largely disappeared from everyday use. Ponichtera had to reconstruct meaning from historical and cultural context before determining how best to render a term in English.

One example involved a Yiddish word for the pole traditionally used to carry buckets of water from a well.

“We don’t have a specific word for this in English, nor is it particularly needed at this point in history, so it took a bit of detective work to figure out what this passage was talking about at first,” Ponichtera said.

That process is part of the larger task of literary translation: preserving not only a writer’s words, but the cultural world in which those words were written.

Ponichtera said translating the story offered the opportunity to engage closely with Singer at an early stage of a literary career that would eventually earn international recognition.

“The story is naturally very well-written and thought-provoking, with a stark depiction of cultural change and the way it leaves behind people who were once at the center,” she said. “It is a deeply moving piece, without being sentimental, and contains hints of the interest in the macabre and the supernatural that would become hallmarks of Singer’s style.”

Her recommendation for readers looking for something appropriate to the season is considerably simpler: “Read it for Halloween!”

In the World of Chaos: Selected Early Works, 1925–1937 is available now from Academic Studies Press and booksellers.

Categories: Arts and Culture