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Drunk from the Bitter Truth: The Poems of Anna Margolin
Winner of the 2007 Yiddish Literature and Translation from Yiddish presented by the Helen and Stan Vine Annual Canadian Jewish Book Awards
2007 Runner Up of the National Jewish Book Award in Poetry
Born Rosa Lebensboym in Belarus, Anna Margolin (1887–1952) settled permanently in America in 1913. A brilliant yet largely forgotten poet, her reputation rests on her volume of poetry published in Yiddish in 1929 in New York City. Although written in the 1920s, Margolin's poetry is remarkably fresh and contemporary, dealing with themes of anxiety, loneliness, sexual tensions, and the search for intellectual and spiritual identity, all of which were clearly reflected in her own life choices. Sensitively and beautifully translated here, the poems appear both in the original Yiddish and in English translation.
Shirley Kumove's fascinating critical-biographical introduction highlights Margolin's tempestuous and unconventional life. An exceptionally beautiful and gifted woman, Margolin adopted a bohemian and an eccentric lifestyle, and threw herself into both intellectual pursuits and romantic attachments beyond her two marriages.
2007 Runner Up of the National Jewish Book Award in Poetry
Born Rosa Lebensboym in Belarus, Anna Margolin (1887–1952) settled permanently in America in 1913. A brilliant yet largely forgotten poet, her reputation rests on her volume of poetry published in Yiddish in 1929 in New York City. Although written in the 1920s, Margolin's poetry is remarkably fresh and contemporary, dealing with themes of anxiety, loneliness, sexual tensions, and the search for intellectual and spiritual identity, all of which were clearly reflected in her own life choices. Sensitively and beautifully translated here, the poems appear both in the original Yiddish and in English translation.
Shirley Kumove's fascinating critical-biographical introduction highlights Margolin's tempestuous and unconventional life. An exceptionally beautiful and gifted woman, Margolin adopted a bohemian and an eccentric lifestyle, and threw herself into both intellectual pursuits and romantic attachments beyond her two marriages.
330 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 25, 2014
I can't believe I never heard of her before. She really deserves to be more well known.
June 17, 2017
The heart is so still,
kneeling in dark foreboding,
trembling and suffering
from knowing too much, feeling too much.
kneeling in dark foreboding,
trembling and suffering
from knowing too much, feeling too much.
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March 8, 2026strange poems! I think I liked reading about margolin more than her actual work, but still an interesting read.
Oh lightly, so lightly, oh magically, tenderly
the evening will stir your body
with light, poisoned fingers, proud woman,
your mouth, your gaze, your disheveled hair,
and paint them gray
and dark and nimble,
etching a mighty ring round your loneliness.
Quietly, quietly, like this . . . just like this. . .
Nothing happened. Everything is already past.
Oh lightly, so lightly, oh magically, tenderly
the evening will stir your body
with light, poisoned fingers, proud woman,
your mouth, your gaze, your disheveled hair,
and paint them gray
and dark and nimble,
etching a mighty ring round your loneliness.
Quietly, quietly, like this . . . just like this. . .
Nothing happened. Everything is already past.
March 3, 2019
"Quietly, quietly, like this … just like this …
Nothing happened. Everything is already past."
- from “Quietly”
"Full of sympathy and full of love,
kissing me with bitter lips,
unhappiness hovers
over me."
- from “When I walk with my beloved …”
"His lips rouse her soul from darkened roads,
her lips quiver in dream."
- from “Her Smile”
"I have wandered so much, beloved,
through strange and dark lives,
through hearts like wastelands —
be kind"
- from “I have wandered so much…”
"I hear your voice
and see your shadow"
- from “Lonely Mary”
"Through my tears I bow down to you
and drink your dark life with uneasy lips."
- from “With anxious hands …”
"Again and again,
with heavy memories,
I go through the poems
like a sword."
- from “Just one poem ”
"words like a teardrop, like a prayer,
like the touch of beloved fingers"
- from “Reuben Ludwig"
"All lives are rich in sorrow and are alike,
and everything is immense and incomprehensible."
- from “The masquerade is over”
"Dark heart of mine, don’t curse, believe in miracles:
Somewhere in the world, in a city
I am flowering like a lily"
- from “Autumn”
"The heart weeps like a stray sheep,
weeps itself to sickly sleep"
- from “Dear monsters”
"My heart is still. I am a breath of the great silence. I am a drop in the
grey night. I am a tear that falls in the abyss of night, silently."
- from “My Lover’s Poem”
"I have only one dress.
A cheap woollen dress.
So I adorn myself for my beloved
in the black velvet of sorrow."
- “The Girl Declares”
Nothing happened. Everything is already past."
- from “Quietly”
"Full of sympathy and full of love,
kissing me with bitter lips,
unhappiness hovers
over me."
- from “When I walk with my beloved …”
"His lips rouse her soul from darkened roads,
her lips quiver in dream."
- from “Her Smile”
"I have wandered so much, beloved,
through strange and dark lives,
through hearts like wastelands —
be kind"
- from “I have wandered so much…”
"I hear your voice
and see your shadow"
- from “Lonely Mary”
"Through my tears I bow down to you
and drink your dark life with uneasy lips."
- from “With anxious hands …”
"Again and again,
with heavy memories,
I go through the poems
like a sword."
- from “Just one poem ”
"words like a teardrop, like a prayer,
like the touch of beloved fingers"
- from “Reuben Ludwig"
"All lives are rich in sorrow and are alike,
and everything is immense and incomprehensible."
- from “The masquerade is over”
"Dark heart of mine, don’t curse, believe in miracles:
Somewhere in the world, in a city
I am flowering like a lily"
- from “Autumn”
"The heart weeps like a stray sheep,
weeps itself to sickly sleep"
- from “Dear monsters”
"My heart is still. I am a breath of the great silence. I am a drop in the
grey night. I am a tear that falls in the abyss of night, silently."
- from “My Lover’s Poem”
"I have only one dress.
A cheap woollen dress.
So I adorn myself for my beloved
in the black velvet of sorrow."
- “The Girl Declares”
July 5, 2020
this was one of the most beautifully somber and emotional collections of poems I've read in a while; Anna's imagery is so vivid, I could feel every word. x
December 18, 2020
"Quizás esta fue mi felicidad: sentir cómo tus ojos se inclinaban ante mí. No, más bien esta era mi felicidad: ir y venir silenciosamente por la plaza contigo. No, ni siquiera eso, pero escucha: cómo sobre nuestra alegría se cernía el rostro sonriente de la muerte. Y todos los días fueron púrpura y todos fueron duros."
January 18, 2025
Came across some of her poems in yiddish-english poetry anthologies first, and feel grateful to the translator for all the labor she put into this. The poems are so deep in english, I hope I can learn enough yiddish to experience them in the original language someday
November 28, 2025
It was a bit too much for me. Too fiery and sentimental, full of energy and lust for something otherworldly.
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October 29, 2018839.113 M329d 2005
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews