From a Bird’s Cage to a Thin Branch; The Selected Poems of Yosef Kerler, translated by Maia Evrona, out now from White Goat Press
I recently selected and translated a collection of poems by Yosef Kerler, an important post-war Yiddish poet. Born in Haysin, Ukraine, Kerler grew up in Crimea and served with the Red Army during WWII. He was subsequently arrested and served five years in the Vorkuta Gulag, north of the Arctic Circle. This collection is the first book of his poetry in English.
Here is a blog post with more of my thoughts on the collection: https://glli-us.org/2023/10/12/yiddishlitmonth-from-a-birds-cage-to-a-thin-branch/
A biography of Yosef Kerler is available on the YIVO website: https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Kerler_Yoysef
The book is available for purchase from the Yiddish Book Center:
Flowers from Vorkuta, collected by Leon Narkun, who was imprisoned with Yosef Kerler in the Vorkuta Gulag. Image supplied by Agata Sagan, Narkun’s granddaughter.