Fine Lines: Hebrew and Yiddish Translations of Alexander Pushkin’s Verse Novel Eugene Onegin, 1899–1937 by Sara Miriam Feldman A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Near Eastern Studies) in the University of Michigan Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Shachar Pinsker, Chair Assistant Professor Maya Barzilai Assistant Professor Sofya Khagi Associate Professor Mikhail Krutikov Copyright © by Sara Miriam Feldman All rights reserved On Defending the Dissertation Hello to all and thanks for coming. Today is not as I imagined and to be totally forthcoming I must admit to being saddened. I’d long anticipated Omry Ronen would sit before me across this table, to confer with us, and though I might prefer not doing any more revisions, I’d heed corrections of mistakes, protected by the care he takes— or took—for scholarly precision. To him, then, I compose this note: “is dissertation I devote...” ii Acknowledgements Beginning a graduate education and completing a dissertation are rare privileges that I do not take for granted. At various times I thought that my good luck had run out with the former and that the latter was out of reach for me. It is thanks to the guidance and kindness of so many other people that I was able to do it. While they have le fingerprints on this dissertation, the errors and shortcomings are all mine. My chair, Shachar Pinsker, gave me that first chance. He built a graduate program that offers new perspectives on Jewish identity, modernity, exile, ethnicity, Zionism, and Israel, and has provided a safe space for discussion of how this all relates to other fields in the humanities. I am grateful as well for his careful commentary and hours upon hours of meetings to discuss my work. I cannot imagine writing this dissertation elsewhere. Mikhail Krutikov helped me over the course of several years to see what direction my work was taking, why it should matter for my readers, and how a literary-historical perspective would bring this out; he also gave me a new appreciation of Yiddish and Russian-Jewish culture. His encouragement was essential for my persistence. Since her arrival at Michigan, Maya Barzilai has pushed me to reconsider my positions on translation theory, to think of writing as a skill that must be practiced and can be improved, to develop the necessary work-work balance, to see my own self-doubt from a feminist perspective, and to become a professional. I am especially grateful to my friend Sofya Khagi, whose course first got me interested in Pushkiniana and metapoetry. She stepped in at a late stage to serve on the committee and in a short time helped me to deepen my arguments about the relevance of Pushkin for Jewish writers, going through chapters with me page by page. An undergraduate course with Omry Ronen inspired me to investigate Russian-Jewish liter- ary connections and gave me the initial confidence to do so. His extraordinary commitment to mentoring generations of women scholars deserves recognition. In his graduate courses on Rus- sian poetry, he taught me exegetical, linguistic, and quantitative approaches to literature that could make use of my peculiar educational background. Over years of conversations and in his com- ments at my prospectus defense, he gave me the idea of using Russian-Jewish translations to study the competition between Hebrew and Yiddish. It is one of my greatest regrets in life that I never learned what he thought of my finished research, nor adequately expressed my gratitude during his lifetime, which is why I am dedicating this dissertation to him. I am grateful to other faculty members at Michigan for additional help. Julian Levinson, who has an amazing talent for seeing the potential of other people’s ideas, was also a compassionate teaching mentor who made sure that I could balance my competing responsibilities. If not for Zvi Gitelman’s assertion that people with illnesses and disabilities should still be able to finish graduate school, I iii might have given up years ago. Elliot Ginsburg provided encouragement at the early stages of this project and served on the prospectus committee. Anton Shammas has attended my campus talks with remarks that change the way I think about Hebrew and Yiddish translation. Scholars not associated with UM have also helped me tremendously. Brian Horowitz read parts of this dissertation and helped me to contextualize it. Paula Eisenstein Baker generously shared her archival research with me, including a manuscript of the Yiddish libretto, and for years has carried on a helpful conversation with me about Jewish culture in Vilne and Ekaterinoslav. My correspondence with Andrew Noble Koss has helped me to understand the role of the Great War in shaping Jewish culture in Vilne. Kenneth Moss shared an archival citation that I was desperate to find, leading me to make new discoveries about Hebrew translations of Onegin that were never written. Olga Litvak suggested that I study Jewish Pushkinism. I am also grateful for conversations with Dan Miron and Hamutal Bar-Yosef. I cannot know the extent of my debts to the staff of Near Eastern Studies, including Wendy Burr, Angela Beskow, Margaret Casazza, Lisa Michelin, and Wendy Vidovic, or to the staff of Judaic Studies, including Stacy Eckert, Tracy Darnell, Brittin Pollack, and Cherie ompson. I would also like to thank Jean McKee from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the staff of the Center for Russian and East European Studies, including Marysia Ostafin. ank you to the library staff at the University of Michigan Libraries and Interlibrary Loan for retrieving or scanning countless materials for this research. I am similarly indebted to the staff of the Genazim Archive and Periodicals Library within the greater Beit Ariela Library, to the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, and especially to Shmuel Avneri at Bialik House. e Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies supported this work with a Rackham Hu- manities Research Award and travel grants to present it at conferences, as well as emergency funds for medical expenses. In addition to providing an outstanding intellectual community including the Yiddish Leyenkrayz, the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies funded language study, conference travel, and research travel. A Foreign Language and Area Studies award from the Center for Russian and East European Studies funded summer language study in Saint Petersburg. e Mellon Summer Dissertation Seminar supported the writing process. e Posen Foundation funded airfare to an Association for Jewish Studies conference. I would never have been able to write this dissertation if not for the generations of volunteers, veterans, and staff of the Graduate Employees’ Organization, who have worked hard and sacrificed much so that others might have fair teaching stipends, working conditions, and medical benefits. Graduate student debt at Michigan demonstrates that there is much more work to be done in the future, but it is thanks to GEO’s continuing efforts that wealthy parents are still not a prerequi- site for doctoral study here. ank you all for the time and risk you put into strikes, data entry, meetings upon meetings, contract-writing, organizing across campus, phone-banking, department visits, grievance filing, button-making, discrimination-fighting, collective bargaining, and all the other hard work that goes into making higher education more accessible and academic labor more valued. ank you for risking your careers, and sometimes even losing them, for justice. And thank you to the other campus unions, workers, and students that have stood in solidarity with GEO over the years. I was fortunate to enjoy a cohort of graduate student colleagues in Hebrew and/or Yiddish liter- ature whose camaraderie, collegiality, and friendship have been indispensable for this dissertation in so many ways that I would have to write another one just to catalogue what they have done for me. Alexandra Hoffman, Oren Segal, Ramon Stern, and Orian Zakai, I look forward to this exchange iv lasting far beyond our graduate years. ank you as well to other graduate student affiliates of Judaic Studies, including Nicholas Block and Daniel Mintz, whose comments in our writing group helped advance the dissertation, and Sarah Garibova, the historian to my lit-crit, who have contributed to the completion of this project. I am also grateful for my friends and colleagues in the field of Russian literature: Mariya Lomakina, Sergei Sychov, and Marin Turk. If not for the Department of Near Eastern Studies, I would never have met my three Silver Lake sisters Sofia Carlsson, Ilgi Evrim Gercek, and Yasmeen Hanoosh, who teach me what lies between ideas and our reality, and saw me through good and bad times. Libby Boulter, Helen Dixon, Talia Gangoo, and Anne Kreps have provided that unique variety of friendship that thrives on intellectual engagement and difference. I have had many supportive graduate friends and colleagues in NES, and owe special thanks to Tayfun Bilgin, Stephanie Bolz, Ozgen Felek, Derek Mancini-Lander, and Spencer Scoville. Finally, the Dissertation Support Group was true to its name. Across disciplinary boundaries, many others I met as graduate students have contributed to this dissertation in one way or another. Without my writing companion Anna Genina and my guide Xochitl Ruiz, I might never have finished. Olivia Bustion helped me tremendously with writing challenges. My study buddies Sherina Feliciano-Santos and Susanne Unger first explained how this work could interest people in other fields. Diana Sierra and Martin Vega taught me how to con- quer my doubts by contextualizing them. Kelin Emmett was an enthusiastic and supportive writing buddy and cheerleader. Dimitrios Krallis cheerfully shares his know-how when I need it.