Volume 29, Number 14 · September 23, 1982
From Moses to Gilboa
By Harold Bloom
The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse
edited and translated by T. Carmi
Penguin, 608 pp., $9.95 (paper)
This admirable anthology has no rivals in English or in Hebrew. The editor and translator, though born in New York City, spoke Hebrew as a child, fought for Israel as a young man, and has written distinguished poetry in Hebrew (which he modestly omits from this collection). His labors have given the reader with only moderate Hebrew, or little, or even none, a chance to educate himself in a poetic tradition spanning three thousand years. Before studying Carmi's anthology, I thought of Hebrew poetry as comprising mostly three periods: Biblical, medieval Spanish, and modern, with the single major exception of Immanuel of Rome, a contemporary of Dante. But I am still not sure if Carmi is justified in presenting Hebrew poetry as a continuous tradition. Is 'Hebrew poetry' truly a coherent literary phrase?
Review, 2661 words
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