Samuel Jakub Imber

Shmuel Yankev Imber (Russian: Шмуэль Яков Имбер, Hebrew: שמואל יעקב אימבר, Polish: Samuel Jakub Imber, also: Samuel Jacob Imber; 24 February 1889 – 1942) was a Jewish poet and publicist writing in Polish and Yiddish. He was regarded as one of the originators and trailblazers of Yiddish poetry in Galicia, and popularized it in big intellectual centers. He was one of the first neo-romantics of Yiddish poetry. on 24 February 1889, as a son of the Hebrew writer and teacher Shmaryahu Imber and nephew of Naftali Herz Imber, the author of Hatikvah. Shmuel Yankev received traditional Jewish religious education, and also went to Polish gymnasiums in Złoczów and Tarnopol. As a poet he debuted in the weekly newspaper Tshernovitser Vokhnblat in 1905. In 1907 he published Polish translations of Jewish and Ukrainian literature, and also his own poems under the nom de plume Jan Niemiara. Together with Melech Ravitch from 1909, he strove to promote the aesthetic ideals of neo-romanticism in Lviv Jewish literary centers, inspired by Jewish writers such as Arthur Schnitzler and Stefan Zweig. In this year he also published his first Yiddish poetry collection Vos Ikh Zing un Zog (What I Sing And Say). In 1911 he published a romantic poem Esterke about a legendary romance of Polish king Casimir III the Great and daughter of a Jewish blacksmith, that gained him a further recognition and acclaim.

Works

Vos Ikh Zing un Zog (1909) Esterke (1911) In Yidishn Land (1912) Royznbleter (1914) Vald Oys Vald Ayn (1920) Viktorya (1920) Geklibene Dikhtungen (1921) Pieśń i dusza Oskara Wilde'a (1934) Asy czystej rasy (1934) Kąkol na roli (1938)