Love Poems of a Philanderer's Wife by Henry Wenkart

Translated by Mindy Rinkewich

This book is a collection of poetry presented in its original Yiddish text, accompanied by English translations. Each poem captures the essence and rhythm of Yiddish, while the English versions offer readers an accessible interpretation, preserving the emotional depth and cultural richness of the original language.

She is a secure young Jewish girl, the daughter of a lawyer, living in beautiful Vienna before the Nazis arrived—a city filled with palaces, parks, and music. He is a little boy in Nazi-controlled Frankfurt, where Jews like him are already being beaten, yet all boys, even Jewish ones, are in awe of the tall, black-clad SS officers. Both families eventually flee to America, where they start with very little. The boy and girl grow up knowing each other and, later in college, fall in love. However, the cultural divide between German Jews and those from Vienna creates tension; he is not supposed to date, let alone marry her. Defying expectations, they elope, love each other, work hard, give their parents grandchildren, and remain faithful—at least on the surface, everything seems fine.

His father had always taught him that real men are not monogamous, a notion the young couple initially dismiss as nonsense—or so she believes they both do. But slowly, she begins to sense that something is amiss, then realizes what it is, and eventually, who it is. In modern times, first wives don't die young as they did in centuries past; instead, they sometimes find themselves discarded for "arm candy," with society expecting them, not the candy or the man, to feel shame. These poems explore the courage and wisdom required to reject that imposed role.