Piglets and Soviet ‘kinderlakh’
One totally treyf poem’s story
Did you know that Soviet Jews, during the years of the ‘collectivization’ in 1920s-1930s, were encouraged to form Jewish collective farms, where, above all else, they breeded… pigs!?
Actually, I had no idea about it. Until I discovered that very well-known to me (and millions other Soviet kids) poem by Sergey Mikhalkov about “Anna-Vanna and little piglets” was originally written in Yiddish by the famous Soviet Jewish writer Leyb Kvitko (1890–1952). You can read more about him at YIVO site.
Kvitko was a type of new “Soviet”, Communistic writer — and he obviously was writing about new Soviet Jews, who never went to sinagogue, always worked in Shabes and ate pork. This poem tells about little Jewish kids (probably ‘pioneers’- Soviet scouts) who come to the pig farm and ask brigade-leader (brigadir) Ana-Vana to show them little piglets
The poem called “Khazerlekh” (Piglets) was printed for the first time in Odessa in 1935
“Ana-Vana brigadir, efn uf fun shtal di tir! Vaiz mir naye, sheyne, khazerlekh di kleyne!” — “Ana-Vana brigadir, open the swine-house door! Show us new-born, beautiful, little piglets!”
“Shpayter, kinder, khavrelayt, itster do nit raschn. H’halt doh itst di khazerlekh, grod inmitn vashn” — “It’s late, kids, darlings, now don’t be noisy. The piglets are eating, and soon we will wash them”
The rest of the poem Ana-Vana is continuing to think up a new and new suitable excuses not to let “khavrelayt” to enter the piglets house
Gennady Eystrakh is writing in his book In Harness: Yiddish Writers’ Romance With Communism: “No doubt, Kvitko’s interest in this daring topic was part of the campaign — fuelled by ideological rather than purely economic reasons — to introduce pig-breeding among the Jewish peasants…”
Later, as I’ve already mentioned, “Khazerlekh”, translated into Russian by Sergei Mikhalkov, the author of three Russian national anthems, became the best-known work of Yiddish poetry in the Soviet Union.
