Poetry
רחובות הנהר
Not translated into English
Uri Zvi Greenberg · 1951
Synopsis
A vast cycle of poems written after the destruction of the Jews of Europe. The poet mourns his murdered parents and sisters, and reproaches himself for being the son who fled the house of his father and mother. He summons Auschwitz, German brutality and the biblical narratives, and sets against the catastrophe visions of vengeance and national revival. The poems, made of apostrophes, lamentations and proclamations, move constantly from complaint to a call for renewal.
Context
Greenberg, settled in Palestine since 1923, had left his family behind in Lemberg; they were murdered during the war, and the poet thereafter bore the guilt of the son who left. The book, subtitled Book of Lamentations and of Strength, was published by Schocken in 1951; it gathers poems written after 1945, including the Lament of the Son Who Ran Away from His Father and Mother. Calls for vengeance and the announcement of a restored Jewish sovereignty mingle with the lamentations.
Who it is for
A long collection of poems in Hebrew, with no French or English translation. Better to know the history of the Shoah and that of the poet's family.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by the Encyclopaedia Judaica as his great poetic achievement; Britannica calls it acclaimed.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.