Bertha Kling: Poems

Readers of this blog have by now seen the deep influence of Bertha Kling upon her circle and upon the writers and artists who populated it. Although many members of her salon have had their work translated into many languages, Bertha Kling’s own poetry has largely remained untranslated. In Bertha Kling’s poetic voice I have found a strong moral compass, quietly articulated, and a devotional love interlaced with a profound melancholy. 

I also found a core of power and a feminist consciousness in her poetry. My favorite poem is “You pressed me close” of Lider—the subtle rage and pain of womanhood is described, in all its complexity, in two sentences. It presents an unstated frustration, both at the careless violence of masculinity and at her own silence in the face of it. This poem, in particular, is interesting to read against Melech Ravitch’s profile of her, which I have previously translated, lauding her patience and mildness—there may be something beneath her calm surface that he missed but that appears in her poetry. 

In Ravitch’s article, he observes that Kling's artistry as a folk singer imbues her poems with music—to him, they are more like song lyrics than traditional lines of verse. I tried to be attentive to the musical quality of the poems in my translations, and I do believe that the results came out a lot like folk songs—brief, unpretentious (many even untitled), written for the ear as well as the eye. 

Because of this performance-oriented quality, and because of Bertha Kling’s multiplicity as a folk singer and a saloniere, we decided to honor her commitment to building community by involving many people in the presentation of her poems, inviting women who embody her roles of poet, singer, and community builder to read her words out loud. 

—Abigail Weaver

These poems were originally published without titles; for the purposes of this post, we have used the first line of each translation as a working title.

"Days I've longed for"

"You / Remind me"

"Come to me —"

"Now"

"Mame"

"There"

"Every saying said and done"

"I did not / Acquiesce"

"You pressed me close"

"So by night"

"Look not"

Read more of Bertha Kling's poetry in the Yiddish Book Center's Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library.

Illustration at top of page by Dina Matus (1898–1944)

The Bronx Bohemians blog is made possible with the support of the Lynn and Greendale families in memory of their aunt and mother, Zeva Greendale, and her special passion for yidishkayt.