Poetry
חזיונות ומנגינות
Not translated into English
Saul Tchernichovsky · 1898
Synopsis
Tchernichovsky's first collection, published in Warsaw by the Tushiya house, in two parts, from 1898, with a laudatory preface by the critic Reuven Brainin. It brings together poems written in his youth in Odessa, including “Ani maamin”, which takes the name of the traditional profession of faith to express a faith in humanity, in the brotherhood of peoples and in the rebirth of his people, and “Be-Ein Dor”, a ballad in which King Saul, on the eve of a battle against the Philistines, goes to consult the witch of Endor and speaks with the shade of Samuel.
Context
The first part appeared in 1898 from Tushiya, the second soon after, and Reuven Brainin welcomed the author in his preface. Cyril Aslanov's study sees in the collection a revolution in poetic aesthetics, which turns its back on the effusions of the poets of the day. “Ani maamin”, set to music, became the anthem of several youth movements, and one of its lines appears on the fifty-shekel note; “Be-Ein Dor”, first published in 1897 in Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's newspapers, is regarded as one of the best-known ballads of Hebrew poetry.
Who it is for
A collection of poems in Hebrew, with no French or English translation. It helps to know the biblical story of the necromancer consulted by Saul, in the first book of Samuel.
Prizes and reception
The first book of one of the great poets of modern Hebrew, which the criticism of his day welcomed from the preface by Reuven Brainin onwards.