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Kovner vs. Kovner: “A Parting from the South” vs. “Combat Page”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 October 2009
Extract
The poet Abba Kovner was a partisan and freedom fighter during World War II (1942–1945), made aliyah in 1945, and published his first long poem, ‘Ad lo ’or (“Until There Was No Light”), in 1947. At the outbreak of the Israeli War of Independence he fought on the Egyptian front (1947–48), serving as a cultural officer, or politruk in the Giv'ati Brigade. Preda me-ha-darom (“A Parting from the South”), his second long poem and one of the pivotal works by a modern Hebrew poet, was written against the background of the War of Independence. However, critics have not yet been able to find a fitting place for it in the canon of Hebrew poetry and culture, although several serious attempts have been made. The present study does not refer to every aspect of this complex poem but focuses on one particular point. I contend that “A Parting from the South” implies an attempt by the visionary speaker of the poem to compel the young country, soon after the war, to part from the world of death, from cultic memories of the dead and guilt feelings toward them (the dead in the 1948 war in Israel and the dead in the ghettos of Nazi Europe in World War II). Abba Kovner tries to detach himself, and his readers, from death, to liberate them from the old perspectives.
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References
1. Politrukwas the nickname given to educational and cultural officers of Palmach and Haganah forces combat units during the War of Independence. It reflected the strong influence of Soviet World War II literature on Israeli literature and culture in those days. At the time, the term had no negative connotations, although the Soviet politruksearned a bad reputation after World War II.
2. First edition (Merhaviya, 1949); all quotations are from the second edition (1969). English quotations are from Shirley Kaufman, trans., A Canopy in the Desert: Selected Poems by Abba Kovner(Pittsburgh, 1973), pp. 73'92
3. Until recently critics only dealt with certain aspects of this long poem. However, leading critics dwelt on the work's great importance and quality. Examples are Benjamin Hrushovski, who in September-October 1952 published three articles dealing with the modem Hebrew long poem in general, and Kovner in particular, in Masa,the literary supplement of the daily La-merhav.The three were published as one article under the title “Abba Kovner and the Modern Hebrew Long Poem” (Hebrew) in Abba Kovner: A Selection of Critical Essays on His Writings(Hebrew), ed. Shalom Luria (Tel Aviv, 1988), pp. 42–82. See also B. Y. Michali, “Abba Kovner's Four Long Poems” (Hebrew), Moznayim31, nos. 3–4 (1970): 166–175; Shalom Luria, “Abba Kovner: The Man and His Poetry” (Hebrew), in Abba Kovner: A Selection of Critical Essays,pp. 192–277; and especially idem, “Preda me-ha-daromby Abba Kovner” (Hebrew), Zehut/Identity3 (1983): 200–206. This was the beginning of a close reading of the whole long poem, but the discussion was discontinued shortly after it began. See also the partial comment by Dan Miron, “Kovner's New Long Poem” (Hebrew), in Abba Kovner: A Selection of Critical Essays,pp. 83–89; and the more exhaustive treatment in idem, Mul ha- 'ah ha-shotek(“Facing the Silent Brother: Essays on the Poetry of the War of Independence”) (Tel Aviv, 1992), pp. 273–274, 320–324, 364–365. For a full treatment of critical work on Kovner till 1988, see Shalom Luria, “The Critical Reaction to Kovner's Writings” (Hebrew), in Abba Kovner: A Selection of Critical Essays,pp. 7–47. See also the latest publication on Kovner's poetry, Ziva Ben-Yoseph Ginor, Beyond the Legend(Hebrew) (Tel Aviv. 1995). Although these partial responses disagree as to the way in which the poems are ordered and on their composition and nature in general, critics agree that Preda me ha-daromwas one of the most important works written after the War of Independence and a leading contribution to modern Hebrew poetry. For a full discussion of this long poem, see Reuven Shoham, The Vision and the Voices(Hebrew) (Tel Aviv, 1994).
4. Hebrew text, p. 39; Kaufman's translation, p. 89.
5. As Booth put it in his Rhetoric of Fiction(Chicago, 1965), pp. 71–76.
6. Nurit Graetz, Hirbet Hiz'eh ve-ha-boker she-le-maharat[Hirbet Hiz'eh and the next morning] (Tel Aviv, 1983).
7. Panfilov's Menby Alexander Bek was translated into Hebrew and published in 1946, along with other Russian war novels. One may see the popularity of literature of this kind in Uri Avneri's war diary Besdotpleshet(1949; reprint ed., Tel-Aviv, 1950), pp. 258–260. See also the English translation On the Forward Fringe: A Novel of General Panfilov's Division(London: Hutchinson, 1945).
8. Eliade, Mircea, Cosmos and History(New York, 1959), pp. 17–34.Google Scholar
9. A good example of the problematic reception of the Dappimcan be found in Kovner's testimony. In his collection of essays On the Narrow Bridge(Hebrew) (Tel-Aviv, 1981), p. 161, he cites a passage from a letter written to him by Shirley Kaufman (his translator into English). She did not want to translate the original Dafkraviinserted into his long poem (1969), p. 45. She asked his permission not to translate this “page,” because she was afraid that the American reader would reiect writinc of this kind.
11. A verbal combination of 'Angliah(“England”), which governed that part of the world at the time, and Farouk,the name of Egypt's king in those days.
12. Bet-Darass:a Hebrew wordplay on the verb daras,“to crush underfoot
13. Kovner dedicated his long poem “To the Brigade—Its name was Giv'ati.”
14. See She‘arey ’Ir(“Gates of the City”), pp. 27–28; Kaufman's Eng. trans., p. 83; Kolot me-ha-giv 'ah(“Voices from the Hill”), p. 36, Eng. trans, p. 87; and to a certain extent also in Lei matzor(“Night of the Siege”), pp. 33–35; Eng. trans., pp. 85–86.
15. See the opening poem, which is a stanza from the poem “Combat Page” (Hebrew), pp. 9,37.
16. Hebrew, , p. 47; Eng. trans., p. 219.Google Scholar
17. Hebrew, , pp. 40–41; Eng. trans., pp. 89–90.Google Scholar
18. Hebrew, , pp. 12–13; Eng. trans., p. 77.Google Scholar
19. Hebrew, , p. 46; Eng. trans., p. 92. On the motif of silence in the poem, see Dan Miron, Mul ha- 'ah ha-shotek(“Facing the Silent Brother”), pp. 364–365.Google Scholar
20. Hebrew, p. 47.Google Scholar
21. See Jeremiah 1:11–12,24:1–7; Ezekiel 30; Amos 7:1–9, 8:1–3; etc.
22. Hebrew, pp.19–20; Eng. trans., p. 79.Google Scholar
23. Hebrew, pp. 22–24; Eng. trans., pp. 81–82.Google Scholar
25. Hebrew, pp. 33–35; Eng. trans., pp. 85–86.Google Scholar
26. Alterman, Nathan, Shirim she-mi-kvar(Tel Aviv, 1972), pp. 149–226,227–255.Google Scholar
27. Ibid., “Joy of the Poor,” pp. 215–217.
29. Miron, Mul ha 'ah ha-shotek,p. 320.Google Scholar
30. Menakhem, Perry, Ha-mivneh ha-semanti shel shirei Bi 'alik(“Semantic Dynamics in Bialik's Poetry”) (Tel Aviv, 1976).Google Scholar
31. See Benjamin Hrushovski, “Ha-'im yesh la-tzlil mashma'ut?” (“Do Sounds Have Meaning? The Problem of Expressiveness of Sound Patterns in Poetry”), Ha-sifrut/Literature1, no. 2
32. Hebrew, , p. 37; Eng. trans., p. 88.Google Scholar
33. Hebrew, , pp. 43–46.Google Scholar
34. SeeHrushovski, “Abba Kovner and the Modern Hebrew Long Poem,” pp. 77–78.Google Scholar
35. “Unreliable author,” in the sense given the term by Wayne C. Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction(Chicago, 1965), pp. 158–159,211–215.
36. See above, n. 9.
37. Abba Kovner, “Shivah min ha-makh'ov” (“Returning from the Pain”), in 'Al ha-gesher ha-tzar(“On the Narrow Bridge”) (Tel Aviv, 1981), pp. 161–162. The reference is to the poem Sderat beroshim ba-derekh Zafona(“A Road of Cypress on the Way North”), p. 46 in the Hebrew text, p. 92 in Kaufman's translation.