31st Nadirism:
Are we dying out? Or are we not dying? If we are indeed dying (literarily and dramaturgically speaking), then screw it, let’s just die already and be done with it, so we can sit down to write our newest masterpiece in...Yiddish! But, if we are in fact not dying out, then it’s time to ready a new inkpot for the winter. What a waste of time, brothers! We’re dipping our feet in a slow-moving river and screaming that we’re drowning! Moreover: we’re acting as if we keep our feet in the flowing water not because we enjoy it (we’d hardly deserve that), but because we want to slowly acquaint ourselves to...drowning.
Geyen mir unter? Tsi geyen mir nisht unter? Oyb mir geyen unter (literarish-dramatish), to zoln mir untergeyn, tsum gutn yor, vos shneler kedey mir zoln zikh konen ruik avekzetsn shraybn undzer nay maysterverk af...yidish! Ele--vider geyen mir nisht unter, darfn mir zikh avade opshteln a nay fesl tint af vinter. Vos far a batlones, briderlekh! Mir bodn zikh di fis in a shtil taykhl un mir gvaldeven, az mir trinken zikh! Nokhmer: mir makhn dem onshtel, az dos, vos mir haltn di fis in leblekh taykh-vaser, iz nisht derfar vos mir hobn derfun hanoe (vi kumt es tsu undz?) nor derfar, vayl mir viln zikh bislekhvayz tsugevoynen tsu...dertrinken zikh.
By Moyshe Nadir
Translated by Corbin Allardice
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