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‘Your picture in my heart I will always carry…’ – women in Mordecai Gebirtig’s ballads
Anna Jeziorkowska-Polakowska
Abstract
Mordecai Gebirtig (1877-1942), workman, carpenter, merchant, poet, actor. Due to scarce amount of biographical facts on his life, his works became the only source of information on poet’s years. He debuted in 1905 in Cracow’s magazine ‘Socjaldemokrat’, fifteen years later his first poetry volume Folkstimlech (Folk tune) compiling twenty poems has been published. Majne lider (My songs) collection, published in 1936, contained fifty four lyrics together with melodies (years 1920-1936). Analysis of Gebirtig’s works, apart from revealing his biographical mysteries, enables creation of typical Jewish woman portrait – from birth until death. Every phase seems to be reflected in poet’s works: the childhood, the youth, the marriage, the motherhood and the senility. The quotation from Mordecai Gebirtig’s ballads illustrate women in various scenes. The emerging image seems not to be homogenous and clear, it is greatly determined by community limitations that all those women had been encountered with. They simply play roles they were given. Daughters can either be obedient or rebellious, wives – humble, discontented, demanding, maids are magnificent, beautiful, loving, recalling their love affair memories, sometimes even fallen… This is life. One could say there is nothing innovative about this – ordinariness and reality. But in this seemingly ordinary and realistic portrait there is an exceptional and peculiar feature – idealized vision of a mother. True sanctuary of Jewish tradition, protecting family, faith and all most valuable virtues.
Keywords:
Mordechaj Gebirtig, poetry, the image of a woman and mother, the working class, the Jewish traditionDetails
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