Dan Pagis

Dan Pagis (born on October 16, 1930 – died on July 29, 1986) was an Israeli poet, lecturer and holocaust survivor.^[1]^[2] 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 Eretz 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 .^[3] 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, the victim of an auto accident.

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: Straelen, Straelener Manuskripte, 1990; Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, Juedischer Verlag 1993
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.

Sources

References

^ The Holocaust and the war of ideas, Edward Alexander, Transaction Publishers, 1994, pp. 90 ff.
^ Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work, S. Lillian Kremer, Taylor & Francis, 2003, pp. 913 ff.
^ http://www.ithl.org.il/author_info.asp?id=196

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[1] The Holocaust and the war of ideas, Edward Alexander, Transaction Publishers, 1994, pp. 90 ff.

[2] Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work, S. Lillian Kremer, Taylor & Francis, 2003, pp. 913 ff.

[3] ttp://www.ithl.org.il/author_info.asp?id=196

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