Dan Pagis

Dan Pagis' poem at the Konzentrationslager Belzec victims memorial

Dan Pagis (born on October 16, 1930 – died on July 29, 1986) was an Israeli poet, lecturer and holocaust survivor. He was born in Rădăuţi, Bukovina in Romania and imprisoned as a child in a concentration camp in Ukraine. He escaped in 1944 and in 1946 arrived safely in Israel where he became a schoolteacher in a kibbutz.

He earned his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he later taught Medieval Hebrew literature. His first published book of poetry was Sheon ha-Tsel ("The Shadow Clock") in 1959. In 1970 he published a major work entitled Gilgul – which may be translated as "Revolution, cycle, transformation, metamorphosis, metempsychosis," etc. Other poems include: "Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car," "Testimony, "Europe, Late," "Autobiography," and "Draft of a Reparations Agreement." Pagis knew many languages, and translated multiple works of literature.

He died in Israel on July 29, 1986, after a battle with cancer.

Pagis' most widely-cited poem is :

written in pencil in the sealed railway car

here in this carload
I am eve
with abel my son
if you see my older son
cain son of adam
tell him that I

Books

Books Published in Hebrew

Poetry

• The Shadow Dial[Sifriat Poalim, 1959 [Shaon Ha-Hol,
• Late Leisure[Sifriat Poalim, 1964 [Sheut Meuheret,
• Transformation[Massada/Hebrew Writers Association, 1970 [Gilgul,
• Brain[Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1975 [Moah,
• Double Exposure[Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1982 [Milim Nirdafot,
• Twelve Faces[Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1984 [Shneim Asar Panim,
• Last Poems[Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1987 [Shirim Aharonim,
• Collected Poems[Hakibbutz Hameuchad/Bialik Institute, 1991 [Col Ha-Shirim,

Books for Children

• The Egg That Disguised Itself[Am Oved, 1973; 1994 [Ha-Beitzah She-Hithapsah,

Non-Fiction

• The Poems of Levi Ibn Al-Tabban[Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1968 [Shirei Levi Ibn Alatabban,
• Secular Poetry and Poetic Theory: Moses Ibn-Ezra and his Contemporaries[Bialik Institute, 1970 [Shirat Ha-Hol Ve-Torat Ha-Shir Le-Moshe Eben Ezra U-Vnei Doro,
• Change and Tradition in Secular Poetry: Spain and ItalyKeter, 1976,
• The Scarlet Thread – Hebrew Love Poems from Spain, Italy, Turkey and the Yemen [edited by Dan Pagis), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1979 [Ke-Hut Ha-Shani)
• A Secret Sealed[Magnes- Hebrew University, 1986 [Al Sod Hatum,
• Poetry Aptly Explained – Studies and Essays on Medieval Hebrew Poetry [The Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1993 [Ha-Shir Davur Al Ofanav,

Books in Translation

• Selected Poems, English: Princeton, Quarterly Review of Literature Series, 1992; London, Menard Press, 1972; Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1981; Berkeley, University of California Press, 1996; San Francisco, North Point, 1989
• German: An beiden Ufern der Zeit, Tr. Anne Birkenhauer, Straelen, Straelener Manuskripte, 2003, ISBN 3-89107-050-0; Erdichteter Mensch, Tr. Tuvia Ruebner, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, Juedischer Verlag 1993, ISBN 978-3-633-54083-9
• Spanish: Granada, Univ. de Granada, 1994
• The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself (2003), ISBN 0-8143-2485-1
• Variable Directions, Tr. Stephen Mitchell, San Francisco: Northpoint, 1989.
• Poems, Tr. Stephen Mitchell, Oxford: Carcanet Press, 1972.

Further reading

• Karl A. Plank: Eve of the Boxcar. In: Plank: Mother of the Wire Fence. Inside and Outside the Holocaust. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1994, pp. 42–57. ISBN 0-664-25219-2
• Robert Alter: Dan Pagis and the poetry of displacement, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0411/is_n4_v45/ai_19016959

Sources

• HistoryNet
• BiographieNet