Exponential minor literatures: a Yiddish poem of the Shoah in Judeo-Spanish translation

Abstract

This essay applies the notion of the minor to the field of translation in order to explore the transhistorical relations between two minor literatures and languages – Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish – that have been radically affected by violent persecution and genocide. Interrogating Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of minor literature as a point of departure, the essay develops a multifaceted analysis of the Judeo-Spanish translation of the Yiddish lament Dos lid funem oysgehargetn Yidishn folk (1943–4). It shows how the translation work of Arnau Pons in El kante del puevlo djidyó atemado constitutes an “exponentially minor” rewriting: a multi-layered practice with the ability of reparation that complicates the notions of the minor and the ultraminor by bringing into the conversation translation in situations of linguicide and epistemicide. The essay’s comparative and interdisciplinary outlook participates in the special issue’s ambition to pluralize the notion of the minor as it proposes to think translation as a modality of postmemory.