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Von Sprache zu Sprache: Winkler Translating Rübner Translating Himself

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Published/Copyright: May 22, 2025
Naharaim
From the journal Naharaim Volume 19 Issue 1-2

Abstract

In his 1957 Hebrew language poetry collection, Ha’esh ba’even (The Fire in the Stone), Tuvia Rübner included a poem dedicated to his sister who was murdered in Auschwitz. A close reading of this poem shows its strong connection to German poems he published in various collections during the 1990s, some of which were written shortly after he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine from Bratislava in 1941. Such dwelling between languages comes to the fore in Manfred Winkler’s German translation of Rübner’s Hebrew poem. Focusing on this poem, while employing theories from translation and memory studies, this article examines the relationship between literary self-translation and the working-through of trauma. I argue that the oscillation between German and Hebrew encapsulates the transition between reflection and experience, as well as the enactment and the mourning, of the terrible loss. In analyzing Winkler’s translational choices, the article sheds light on Rübner’s “self-translations,” while calling attention to Winkler’s own engagement with both languages in dealing with the horror of the Holocaust.

Keywords: translation; trauma; Holocaust; Tuvia Rübner; Manfred Winkler
Corresponding author: Michal Ben-Horin, Comparative Literature, Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Humanities, Ramat Gan, Israel, E-mail:
I would like to thank the two anonymous peer-reviewers for their illuminating comments. Special thanks to Monica Tempian, who brought Winkler’s manuscripts to my attention and inspired me in my work on Rübner, and to Jan Kühne for his generous advice regarding the translations.
Received: 2024-02-19
Accepted: 2024-08-05
Published Online: 2025-05-22
Published in Print: 2025-12-17

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Der deutschsprachig-hebräische Dichter und Künstler Manfred Winkler (1922–2014)
  4. Essays
  5. Manfred Winklers Poetologie der Inspiration
  6. Das literarische Schaffen Manfred Winklers – Werkübersicht, Genese und Textpraktiken
  7. Zur Rezeption von Paul Celans Werk in Manfred Winklers Lyrik
  8. Die Wandelnde Mandel – Manfred Winkler und Paul Celan
  9. „Ich bin in den Karpaten geboren“ – Manfred Winklers rumänische Herkunft
  10. Über den Bukowiner „Exzeptionalismus“. Eine Reflexion
  11. A Migrant from an Imaginary Empire: Manfred Winkler’s Hebrew Poetry
  12. Manfred Winkler’s Statuettes – Shy Monumentality
  13. Research Articles
  14. Von Bindestrichen und Trennlinien. Die Bukowina nach der Bukowina
  15. Von Sprache zu Sprache: Winkler Translating Rübner Translating Himself
  16. Deutsch-hebräische Symbiose: Zur Poetologie der Selbstübersetzung in Manfred Winklers Kafka-Adaptionen
  17. Anabasis als Weg zwischen den Künsten
  18. Primary Source
  19. Kühn und zeitgemäß. Eine frühe poetologische Einlassung Manfred Winklers
https://doi.org/10.1515/naha-2024-0010
Keywords for this article
translation; trauma; Holocaust; Tuvia Rübner; Manfred Winkler

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Der deutschsprachig-hebräische Dichter und Künstler Manfred Winkler (1922–2014)
  4. Essays
  5. Manfred Winklers Poetologie der Inspiration
  6. Das literarische Schaffen Manfred Winklers – Werkübersicht, Genese und Textpraktiken
  7. Zur Rezeption von Paul Celans Werk in Manfred Winklers Lyrik
  8. Die Wandelnde Mandel – Manfred Winkler und Paul Celan
  9. „Ich bin in den Karpaten geboren“ – Manfred Winklers rumänische Herkunft
  10. Über den Bukowiner „Exzeptionalismus“. Eine Reflexion
  11. A Migrant from an Imaginary Empire: Manfred Winkler’s Hebrew Poetry
  12. Manfred Winkler’s Statuettes – Shy Monumentality
  13. Research Articles
  14. Von Bindestrichen und Trennlinien. Die Bukowina nach der Bukowina
  15. Von Sprache zu Sprache: Winkler Translating Rübner Translating Himself
  16. Deutsch-hebräische Symbiose: Zur Poetologie der Selbstübersetzung in Manfred Winklers Kafka-Adaptionen
  17. Anabasis als Weg zwischen den Künsten
  18. Primary Source
  19. Kühn und zeitgemäß. Eine frühe poetologische Einlassung Manfred Winklers
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