TALES OF

MEN DELE THE BooK PEDDLER

FISHKE THE LAME AND

BENJAMIN THE THIRD

S.Y. Abramovitsh MENDELE MOYKHER SFORIM

EDITED BY DAN MIRON AND KEN FRIEDEN INTRODUCTION BY DAN MIRON

LIBRARY OF YIDDISH CLASSICS

FPT $25 .00 U.S.A.

$35 .00 Can.

B o rn in Be loru ss i a in 18 3 6, S. Y.

Abramovitsh was the founding father of mod­

ern Yiddish fi ction. His stories and novels

depict small-town Jewish life in ' the Russian

Pale of Settlement through the hilarious, satir­

ic, and sympathetic tales of his alter ego/ nar­

rator, Mendele the Book Peddler ("Mendele

Moykher Sforim") . This itinerant peddler, who

travels the Pale collecting good stories, was so

closely identified with Abramovitsh 's fiction

that "Mendele" became the author's pen name.

This volume-the fourth in Schocken's

acclaimed Library of Yiddish Classics-brings

together two of Abramovitsh 's best- loved

novellas: "Fishke the Lame," a bittersweet love

story set in the world of beggars, paupers, and

rogues, and "The Brief Travels of Benjamin the

Third," the comical misadventures of a

Quixote-Panza pair who set off to see the

world outside their town. These tales, in

superb new translations by Ted Gorelick and

Hillel H alkin, represent Yiddish storytelling at

its best-full of heart, humor, and homespun

wisdom .

TALES OF

M ENDELE THE BOOK

PEDDLER

THE LIBRARY OF YIDDISH CLASSICS

IS SPONSORED BY THE FUND FOR THE

TRANSLATION OF JEWISH LITERATURE

Series editor: Ruth R. Wisse

Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories by Sholem Aleichem

translated and with an introduction by Hillel Balkin

The I. L. Peretz Reader edited and with an introduction by Ruth R. Wisse

The Dybbuk and Other Writings

byS. Ansky edited and with an introduction by David G. Roskies

Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler: Fishke the Lame and Benjamin the Third

by S. Y. Abramovitsh (Mendele Moykher Sforim) edited by Dan Miron and Ken Frieden

with an introduction by Dan Miron translations by Ted Gorelick and Hillel Balkin

YIDDISH CLASSICS

TALES OF .

M ENDELE -~~ THE B 0 0 K ..

PEDDLER FISHKE THE LAME AND

BENJAMIN THE THIRD

S. Y. Abramovitsh (M ENDELE MOYK HER SFORI M)

INTRODUCTION BY DAN MIRON

TRANSLATIONS BY TED GORELICK

AND HILLEL HALKIN

SCHOCKEN BOOKS t NEW

Copyright© I 996 by Fund for the

Translation of Jewish Literature

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American

Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by

Schocken Books Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada

by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by

Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Men dele Moykher Sforim, I 8 3 t;- I 9 I 7.

[Fishke der krumer. English]

Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler: Fishke the Lame and Benjamin

the Third I S. Y. Abramovitsh (Mendele Moykher Sforim); edited by

Dan Miron and Ken Frieden; introduction by Dan Miron; translations

by Ted Gorelick and Hillel Halkin.

p. em. - (Library of Yiddish classics)

ISBN o-8ot;2-4-I 36 - I

I. Mendele Moykher Sforim, I 8 Jt;- I 9 I 7. II. Miron, Dan.

III. Frieden, Ken, I9H- . IV Mendele Moykher Sforim,

I 8 Jt;- I 9 I 7. Kitsur mas' ot Binyamin ha-shelishi. English. V Title.

VI. Series.

P}t;I29.A2Ft;I3 I996

Book design by Chris Welch

Manufactured in the United States of America

4- 6 9 t;

CONTENTS

Introduction by Dan Miron vii

A Note on the Translations lxxi

fishke the Lame: A Book of Jewish Poorfo[k 1

The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third 299

Glossary 393