Silverblatt Brings Cousin’s Poetry to English Speaking World
Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger writes about wanting to live, “to laugh, to bear all of my burdens.” She celebrates life’s colorfulness, “It is full of beautiful, wondrous things.” Selma didn’t get to experience rainbow hues in the fullness of life. She died in a Soviet labor camp in 1942 when just 18.
They took her life, but they didn’t take her voice. Her cousins, academics and twin sisters Irene and Helene Silverblatt, took on a labor of love to bring Selma’s words to an English speaking audience.
Irene is a professor of cultural anthropology and history at Duke University. UNM’s Helene Silverblatt has many titles– adult psychiatrist; medical director, rural psychiatry program; executive director, behavioral health office of community health outreach; and member of the Department of Family and Community Medicine transdisciplinary team that works with community treatment teams on difficult to treat adults with developmental disabilities in New Mexico. And she works with senior fellows from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy.
The Silverblatts’ mother was born in the United States – their father came to the U.S. before World War I. They had four first cousins. “We never heard mention of Selma until her poetry was published in Germany,” Helene said.
Selma was from Czernowitz, Romania, now Chernivtsi, Ukraine. She started writing poetry – and translating other poetry from French, Romanian and Yiddish into German – when she was 15. Selma's cousin, poet Paul Celan, insisted that Selma's "Poem" be printed next to his piece in a 1968 German anthology.
“’Poem’ is the only piece where Selma writes of death,” Silverblatt said. An interested journalist, after traveling to Israel to see if he could find out more, brought the poems back to Germany, where the first edition was published in 1980.
Helene and Irene always wanted to do a project together and pursuing publishing Selma’s poetry in English was a labor of love for them, particularly after they discovered that her words had inspired dance, song, academic study and more.
Two individuals, Florian Birkmayer and Jerry Glenn, helped translate the words, not just literally, but to keep Selma’s sentiments and rhythm intact.
The sisters’ journey took them to Israel and New York and ultimately, to Chernivtsi, when they took their 88-year-old mother Hilda to Selma’s house. “The Austrians sponsored a plaque that is on the door of the house,” Helene said.
The book, Harvest of Blossoms: Poems from a Life Cut Short, was published by Northwestern University Press, 2008.