Aaron Glanz-Leyeless

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Leyeless was born Aaron Glanz (Arn Glants) on March 5, 1889 in Włocławek, Poland, a large town not far from Warsaw, and grew up in the Polish industrial center of Łódź. He immigrated to New York via London in 1909 and, just after his arrival, helped to organize the secular Yiddish school system in North America.

In his youth Leyeless wrote poetry in Russian, but later wrote exclusively in Yiddish. His first published poems appeared in the anarchist newspaper פֿרײַע אַרבעטער שטימע [Free Workers Voice] in 1914, the same year that he joined the staff of the New York daily, דער טאָג [The Day]. He was a prolific writer on literary and leftist political topics under various pseudonyms, but eventually his main pseudonym, Leyeless, merged with his public persona as A. Glanz-Leyeless. His first major collection of poems, לאַבירינט [Labyrinth], appeared in 1918. Labyrinth immediately established Leyeless as the leading promoter of Modernism of his day. The volume is steeped in East Asian mysticism, an uncanny reminder of which is the swastika illustrations that decorate every page of the book.

In 1919, Leyeless along with Glatstein helped to found the extremely influential avant-garde Yiddish literary group called אין זיך, in English referred to as "the Introspectivists." The Introspectivists rebelled against the aestheticism, stiltedness, and provincialism of the poetic movements that came before them, specifically of the so-called יונגע [Young Ones], such as Mani Leib, among others. For them, the world was perceived in kaleidoscopic fragments, unique to each individual, and this fractured perception would be the hallmark of their poetry. In 1926, Leyeless published another volume of poetry at the peak of the Introspectivist period, the astounding collection ראָנדאָס און אַנדערע לידער [Rondeaux and Other Poems. This volume is divided into two parts: the first a demonstration of Leyeless's virtuosic mastery of all sorts of complex verse forms, including the rondeau (a fixed form of 13 verses written on two rhymes) and complex sonnet cycles; and the second part is nearly entirely in free verse. Poet and translator Benjamin Harshav described Rondeaux as a "celebration of urbanism, the architectural creations of man, the power of New York, the mystical aspects of time-space, abstraction, rhythm, and symmetry." Without a doubt, the volume is one of the masterpieces of all Yiddish poetry.

One thing common to almost all American Yiddish poetry was a love of the churning and chaotic music of the American metropolis. Leyeless’s 1963 love letter to America, אַמעריקע און איך [America and I], the centerpiece of which is a reprinting of his famous poem cycle, “New York,” originally included in the free verse section of Rondeaux. "New York" is an Introspectivist take on the pulsating jolting rhythms and images of the big city. In Leyeless’s poetry, the New York subway car becomes a lesson in alienation, turning the everyday experience of millions of New Yorkers into a fractured nightmare:

A wall. A blunt wall of human backs, arms, legs. A grey bulwark with white round stains. A defeated army in a cave, before maneuvers, Waiting for doors to open. Not cages unlatched, in uproar. Not rocks upheaved from their ground. An army senses The serpentine swaying of a subway Into a station. Too few doors. Too few doors. Inside — crammed, Standing on benches — Walls, walls. Arms, backs, Faces, legs — A kingdom for a seat! A kingdom for a strap! The walls grow longer, Thicker, tighter, denser, Faces grayer, tenser. Got-in! Doors slam shut. Tremor. A living tangle: Restrained, stifled, menacing clamor. Dense, ever denser, Grimmer, dreamier, Blunter, tenser — To rest, supper and cinema. translated by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav

אַ וואַנט. אַ טעמפּע וואַנט פֿון מענטשן-פּלײצעס, הענט, פֿיס. אַ גרויער מויער מיט ווײַסע רונדע פֿלעקן. אַ באַזיגטע אַרמײ אין אַ הײל, פֿאַרן מושטירן, וואָס וואַרט אויף אָפֿענע טירן. ניט קײן אויפֿגעפראַלטע שטײַגן נעמען פּילדערן. ניט קײן פֿעלזן נעמען זיך פֿון די  גרונטן רירן. די אַרמײ נעמט שפּירן דאָס שלאַנגען זיך פֿון אַ סאָבווײ-צוג אין דער סטאַנציע אַרײַן. ווײניק טירן. ווײניק טירן. אינעווײניק אין געדרענג, שטײענדיק און אויף בענק— ווענט, ווענט. פּלײצעס הענט, פֿיס, פּנימער. אַ קעניגרײַך פֿאַר אַ זיץ! אַ קעניגרײַך פֿאַר אַ הענגער! די וואַנט אינעווײניק לענגער, געדיכטער, שטײַפֿער, ענגער, די  פּנימער גרויער, שטרענגער. אַרײַן! פֿאַרלאפּט די טיר. ריר–ריר. לעבעדיקער קנויל. אײַנגעהאַלטענער, פֿאַרשטיקער זשום, צאָרנדיק, וואָרנענדיק געפּילדער. געדרענגט און געדרענגטער, פֿאַרביסענער און פֿאַרבענקטער, טעמפּער און אָנגעשטרענגטער— צו רו, נאַכט-עסן און קינאָ-בילדער.

Although Leyeless’s poetry is profoundly linked to the modernism of the early twentieth century, the breadth of knowledge evident in his work sets him apart from every other Yiddish writer on the scene. Almost every word is a reference, a quote,or a parody; yet the thread that ties his poems together is their personal nature. Leyeless’s legacy is a deeply personal one and it is through his poetry that Yiddish becomes both an intellectual language, capable of expressing the most complex literary and philosophical ideas, and a language of intimacy, laying bare the psychology of Leyeless’s inner life.