Yiddish Translations of Classical Texts: Plato in the Mamalushn and the Metropolis

This chapter introduces two early twentieth-century Yiddish translators of Plato: Yankev Milkh, whose translations of the Apology, Phaedo, and Crito came out in 1919, and N. Shaynberg, whose translation of the Gorgias probably came out in the 1920s. Both were born and bred on Polish soil, neither from elite backgrounds, and both approached their translations not through the original Greek, but through intermediaries. Yet their lives and modes of translation reflect different trajectories. The chapter explores the distinct approaches of these two translators to Greek culture and to their mandate as purveyors to the Yiddish-speaking consumers of classical culture which they presume to address.