64 Friday, July 31, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse' Historic Compilation
"Penguin Book of Hebrew
Verse" is a volume that will
retain literary permanence,
if that is at all possible.
Co-published by the
Jewish Publication Society
with Penguin Books, it is a
masterful collection of the
inerasable in Hebrew
poetry.
It commences with the
Song of Deborah from the
Bible and includes the
poems of Hebrew writers in
Israel in the 1930s.
Thus, it covers 3,000
years of Hebrew poetic writ-
ings.
Dr. T. Carmi is the
editor of this collection
which merits the defini-
tion of a classic.
Carmi was born in New
York City in 1925, to a
Hebrew-speaking family,
and settled in Israel in 1947,
serving with the Israel De-
fence Forces for two years
and then attending the He-
brew University. He- was
Ziskind Visiting Professor-
of Humanities at Brandeis
University in 1970, visiting
fellow of the Oxford Centre
for postgraduate Hebrew
studies (1974-1976) and
poet-in-residence at the He-
brew University of
Jerusalem (1977).
He is currently visiting
professor of Hebrew litera-
ture at the Hebrew Union
College, Jewish Institute of
Religion in Jerusalem, from
which post he took a leave of
absence in 1979 to be visit-
ing professor, department of
English at Stanford Uni-
versity.
He has lectured and given
poetry readings at many
universities and at the
Poetry Center, New York.
He took part in the Interna-
tional Poetry Festival in
London in 1971 and 1976,
and in the Poetry Interna-
tional, Rotterdam, in 1975.
In Israel he has been
awarded the Shlonsky
Prize tm. Poetry, the
Brenner Prize for Litera-
ture and the Prime Minis-
ter's Award for Creative
Writing.
He has published eight
volumes of poetry in He-
brew, and two collections
have appeared in English
translation: "The Brass
Serpent" (1964) and "Some-
body Like You" (1971).
He has also translated
several well-known plays
into Hebrew, including "A
Midsummer Night's
Dream" and "Measure for
Measure."
"T Carmi and Dan Pagis:
Selected Poems ," translated
by Stephen Mitchell, was
published in the Penguin
Modern European Poets
series in 1976.
This immense work of
more than 600 pages is
more than a bilingual an-
thology, containing the
great poetic works in He-
brew with Dr. Carmi's
translations. They are
supplemented by defini-
tive essays which provide
scholarly explanations of
notes on Hebrew, on
medieval Hebrew genres,
and by the editor and
gatherer of the poems;
and a special essay,
"Notes on the Systems of
Hebrew Versification."
Important data on the
history and development of
the Hebrew poem is pro-
vided in the scholarly intro-
duction to this volume by
Dr. Carmi.
Here are the fascinating
backgrounds leading up to
the present era in Dr. Car-
mi's introduction:
"The first thousand years
of post-biblical poetry are
relatively unknown, even to
the Israeli reader. Some of
the later periods have also
passed into oblivion. It is
generally, and erroneously,
believed that Hebrew
poetry developed sporadi-
cally, that it was mostly
liturgical and, moreover,
Yehuda Amichai: Israel's Most Famous Poet
By DVORA WAYSMAN
World Zionist Press Service
JERUSALEM — Most
people think of poets as liv-
ing in an ivory tower, but if
you want to talk to Hebrew
poet Yehuda Amichai, his
wife lifts a trapdoor and you
descend rickety wooden
steps to a modest study in
the basement of his cottage
in Jerusalem's Yemin
Moshe.
Yehuda Amichai is an Is-
raeli poet who has achieved
greatness writing in a lan-
guage that is not his native
tongue. He was born in
Wuerzburg, Germany in
_1924, yet his poetry is writ-
ten only in Hebrew, al-
though today it is trans-
lated into 20 languages.
Amichai did not begin to
speak Hebrew until his fam-
ily settled in Jerusalem
when he was 13-years old,
so it is remarkable how
much influence he has
exerted on contemporary
Hebrew verse. And,
paradoxically, he himself
was influenced not, as one
would expect, by German
poets, but particularly by
the English poet W. H. Au-
den.
Although most of
Amichai's education was
Israeli (or Palestinian, to
be accurate), from the
beginning his poetry.fol-
lowed Western tradition
— lyrical, melancholy,
tightly-constructed
verse. His use of daily
speech and idioms, his
irony and his use of
metaphysical metaphors
have become hallmarks
of contemporary Hebrew
poetry.
His seven-year-old son
sprawled affectionately at
his feet as he talked frankly
— and modestly — about his
life and work. As the first
two lines of his poem "All
the Generations" indicate:
"All past generations have
donated me, Piece by piece,
to be built here in
Jerusalem. . ."
Woven into Amichai's
poems are not only his war
experiences, many of which
date back to when he served
with the Jewish Brigade in
World War II, but also his
Jewish heritage. Despite
his secular schooling and
abandonment of the Or-
thodox Judaism he was born
into, Amichai continues to
draw on the Bible and rich
Jewish imagery which is
part of the fabric of his be-
ing.
A la of his poems have
the quality of musical
etudes, and many of the ti-
tles contain the word 'Now,"
as though he is trying to
cast off eternal values and
written in a dead language.
The main reason for these
misconceptions lies in the
peculiar fate and nature of
Hebrew poetry.
"Its distinctive histori-
cal features are its
chronological span and
geographical distribu-
tion. It has been written
virtually without inter-
ruption from biblical
times to the present day.
Over the centuries its
main centers were in
Palestine and Spain,
Babylonia and Italy and
Germany and Eastern
Europe. But it also had
important branches in
North Africa, the Bal-
kans, Yemen and Hol-
land.
"This longevity and mo-
bility involved several fresh
and, sometimes, false
starts. Centuries of con-
tinuity were followed by
bouts of amnesia, and then a
re-discovery of neglected
treasures. This meant that
Hebrew poetry could be at
very different stages of its
development, during the
same period, in different
geographical areas.
"The time-tables are far
from synchronized: the
classical period of liturgical
poetry in Palestine ex-
tended from the Sixth to the
Eighth Century; the
classical period of secular
and liturgical poetry in
Spain began in the 11th
Century. In Germany and
northern France, the
Ashkenazi style emerged in
the 12th Century; the char-
acteristic Hebrew-Italian
style took shape in the 16th
Century.
"As it moved from one
center to another, Hebrew
poetry assimilated the
thematic and prosodic con-
ventions of the surrounding
culture. It borrowed the cut-
lery, and sometimes even
the furniture, of the host
country."
YEHUDA AMICHAI
replace them with the in-
tensity of present experi-
ence.
His first volume of
poetry, which he pub-
lished himself in 1955,
was entitled, "Now and
Other Days," to be fol-
lowed by "Two Hopes
Away" (1958), "In the
Public Garden" (1959)
and "Collected Poems
1948-1962" published in
1963.
In 1968, his novel "Not of
this Time, Not of this Place"
appeared. Even though it is
prose, it tends to be reflec-
tive of poetic illumination.
The theme focuses on an Is-
raeli seeking revenge upon
the Germans who partici-
pated in the extermination
of his native town.
able names and poems are
recorded. Included in that
list is Solomon Gabriol,
The collected poems
are from three time
periods — Bible to 10th
Century, from the 10th to
the 18th Century, and
Modern Times.
In the middle section not-
THE NARCISSUS
Lovely and fair, like blended
perfumes and choicest spices;
like richly coloured jugs; or like
a bowl of gold in a bowl of silver:
the one is like snow, and the
other is like saffron and is
encircled by six petals, as the.
Sabbath is by the week-days.
•
"The Song of Deborah"
and its translation occupy
four pages in this text. It is
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preceded by the "Song of the
Sea," from Exodus Chapter
15:
THE SONG OF THE SEA
Then Moses and the Israelites
sang this song to the Lord:
nnwn nrr,`,
I shall sing to the Lord, for He
has triumphed gloriously:
horse and chariot He has
hurled into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my
protection, He has become my
salvation. This is my God, and I
shall praise Him; my father's
God, and I shall extol Him. The
Lord is a warrior; Lord is His
name!
The chariots of Pharaoh and his
army He cast into the sea; the
pick of his officers were plunged
into the Sea of Reeds. The abyss
engulfed them; they went down
into the depths like a stone.
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The modern portion
commences with the poetry
of Hayyim Nahman Bialik.
The most noted poets are in-
cluded, including selections
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"The Penguin Book of
Hebrew Verse" is a verita-
ble treasure. The many
poets included form an
encyclopedic Who's Who.
circa 1055. Here is a section
from his poetry in the Pen-
guin Book of Hebrew Verse:
Your right hand, 0 Lord, is
majestic in power; Your right
hand, 0 Lord, shattered the
enemy!
from Uri Zvi Greenberg who
died in Jerusalem, May 8,
1981, at the age of 87. Here
is a selection from his poems
in this volume:
WITH MY GOD, THE
BLACKSMITH
Like chapters of prophecy, my
days burn in all their
revelations, and my body, in
their midst, is like a melted
mass of metal. And over me
stands my God, the blacksmith,
hammering mightily. Every
wound that Time has cut in me,
opens its gash and spits forth
the pent-up fire in sparks of
moments.
This is my fate, my daily lot,
until evening falls. And when I
return to fling my beaten mass
upon the bed, my mouth is a
gaping wound. Then, naked, I
speak to my God: 'You have
worked so hard. Now night has
come; let us both rest.
Few other works compare
with this one, edited by Dr.
Carmi, in their value, im-
pressiveness, retention in-
erasably from the finest in
the literature of all lan-
guages. It is a volume merit-
ing best-seller status for all
time.
—P.S.