Yankl the Blacksmith
When handsome womanizer Yankl falls in love with virtuous Tamara, it is clear to both of them that marital fidelity will be the touchstone for his becoming the man he longs, and has it in him, to be. Adam Immerwahr, whose Theater J performed a staged reading of the play in 2019, calls it “a story about change: what does it mean for a human being to truly change? Is it even possible?” The drama lies in the psychological interaction of characters, confrontations spoken and unspoken, and Yankl’s (to quote director Moshe Yassur) “heroic struggle” against his own weaknesses.
The author David Pinski was a major figure in modern Yiddish literature, as playwright, novelist, essayist, editor, and mentor to young artists. He wrote in a variety of styles, realistic to symbolist, and was unusual among his peers in openly portraying sexual relationships. Late in life he served as president of the Yiddish section of PEN International.
Yankl the Blacksmith has been produced in several languages and in several adaptations. This translation was subsidized in part by a PEN nominated grant from New York State Council for the Arts. An excerpt appears in The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization (Yale University Press).
This translation is available in Yiddish Plays for Reading and Performance (SUNY Press, 2021). Permissions for performance are available from Nahma Sandrow.