All my yesterdays were steps

At long last, a new generation of American readers may relish in depth the "fiery social motifs" and lyric exuberance that international audiences have revered for over fifty years. Dora Teitelboim, the Yiddish poet from Poland, America, France and Israel is translated here by Aaron Kramer in her first English collection. Her seething poetry sees yesterday, today and tomorrow. Her unflagging concern for the fate of humanity is projected through songs of sorrow and empathy which express a keen social conscience in dazzling images and language of extraordinary richness. Describing these poems Abraham Schlonsky, the world-renowned Hebrew poet, says, "Her versification derives from the sounds of her nigen (Yiddish melody), from the wings of her imagination, and from the colors of her style." . Born in Poland in 1914, by the age of twelve Dora Teitelboim was writing verse. From 1944 to 1991 she had published nine volumes of increasingly distinctive poetry, much of it translated into English, Russian, French, Vietnamese, Chinese and Hebrew. Over the decades, her word, her themes, her motifs, may have undergone changes, but the nigen remains hers - the same unyielding one which she inherited from her ancestors. Dora Teitelboim, who grew up in hunger and in strife, in storm and in love ultimately praised and honored by such world-poets as M. A. Asturias, Pierre Seghers, Pablo Neruda, died in 1992, leaving a legacy of song elegantly crafted, unyielding in its humanity and forever rebellious.