ABSTRACT The trajectory of Moyshe Kulbak's biography (1896–1937), drawing him from small town to big city, mirrors that of many in his generation. The image of the city in tension with that small town, or rather its replacement – nature – haunts so much of his greatest work. The urban dimension of Kulbak's work is both inescapable and tantalizingly complex. This essay analyzes the first of these works, his long poem “The City” – “one of the most popularly recited poems of its day.” Over four sections – sunset, midnight, predawn, and dawn – the poem follows the city's changes as it passes the overnight into the dawn. Equally dramatic, however, is the overlay of ambivalences toward this inevitable passage, as felt by a young poet drawn toward urban possibilities and revolutionary promise and repulsed by their cruelty. It offers us a distinctive Yiddish lens on a world in which the revolution is a city.

中文翻译：

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革命是一座城市：莫伊舍·库尔巴克的诗歌《城市》

摘要 Moyshe Kulbak 的传记（1896-1937）将他从小镇带到大城市的轨迹反映了他那一代人的轨迹。这座城市与那个小镇的紧张关系，或者更确切地说是它的替代品——自然——在他最伟大的作品中萦绕不去。库尔巴克作品的城市维度既不可避免，又极其复杂。本文分析了这些作品中的第一部作品，即他的长诗《城市》——“当时最受欢迎的诗歌之一”。超过四个部分——日落、午夜、黎明和黎明——这首诗跟随城市的变化，因为它从一夜之间过渡到黎明。然而，同样具有戏剧性的是，对这一不可避免的段落的矛盾心理的叠加，正如一位年轻的诗人所感受到的那样，被城市的可能性和革命的希望所吸引，并被它们的残酷所排斥。