Bepina Vragec

“People ask me often, ‘Why do you write in a dying language?’ And I want to explain it in a few words.

Firstly, I like to write ghost stories and nothing fits a ghost better than a dying language. The deader the language the more alive is the ghost. Ghosts love Yiddish and as far as I know, they all speak it.

Secondly, not only do I believe in ghosts, but also in resurrection. I am sure that millions of Yiddish speaking corpses will rise from their graves one day and their first question will be: “Is there any new Yiddish book to read?” For them Yiddish will not be dead.

Thirdly, for 2000 years Hebrew was considered a dead language. Suddenly it became strangely alive. What happened to Hebrew may also happen to Yiddish one day, (although I haven’t the slightest idea how this miracle can take place.)

There is still a fourth minor reason for not forsaking Yiddish and this is: Yiddish may be a dying language but it is the only language I know well. Yiddish is my mother language and a mother is never really dead.

[Isaac Bashevis Singer’s speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1978]”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Рудин нисколько не желал повредить мне, — напротив! Но вследствие своей проклятой привычки каждое движение жизни, и своей и чужой, пришпиливать словом, как бабочку булавкой, он пустился обоим нам объяснять нас самих, наши отношения, как мы должны вести себя, деспотически заставлял отдавать себе отчет в наших чувствах и мыслях, хвалил нас, порицал, вступил даже в переписку с нами, вообразите!.. Ну, сбил нас с толку совершенно!”
― Ivan Turgenev, Rudin

“At that moment suddenly, without any warning, the ice broke beneath their feet, as if they had stepped on a hidden crack in it, and their combined weight had made it give way. The break threw them on to their knees, and to each other. For a minute the ice still bore them, a foot below the surface of the water. They might have saved themselves, then, if they had separated and struggled on to the two sides of the crack, but the idea did not occur to either of them.”
― Isak Dinesen, Peter og Rosa

“Put that newspaper away!’ I said.
‘Did you read about . . .?’ he said. And that did it: time had returned.
We had thought we could escape time. But you can’t, it follows you. I looked at the Princess and pointed at the newspaper, and she nodded. We had talked about it the night before; about newspapers, about time in general, and about this time. One often thinks love is stronger than time; but time is always stronger than love.”
― Kurt Tucholsky, Schloß Gripsholm