Peter Cole (translator/editor): The
Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian
Spain, 950-1492
(Princeton University Press, 2007. Hardcover, 576pp,9.1ins
x 6.1ins, $50 / £29.95, ISBN 9780691121949; paperback, $19.95
/ £11.95.
ISBN 978-0691121956)
Where on earth does one start? For me this has
been the best book of the year so far, and there's no contest. I
was familiar with some of the work, thanks to Peter Cole's pioneering
large selections of Shmuel Ha-Nagid and Solomon Ibn-Gabirol (both
also published by Princeton UP, and highly recommended), but this
stretches the envelope much further than I thought possible, both
geographically (Toulouse and Provence) and temporally (just look
at those dates: it only ends with the reconquista and the expulsion
from Spain of the Jews). Then, it must also be said that — and this
is going to sound like a back-handed compliment, but it's most emphatically
not — even you find the poems hard going (and I don't see why one
should) the introduction, notes and general apparatus are so fascinating
and include so much new information, that the reader learns an enormous
amount.
The poems here are of all kinds, qasidas, epigrams,
elegies, most of them influenced decisively by Arabic models, through
which the Jewish poets of Andalus found a new way of writing that
did not depend entirely on biblical or liturgical precedents. Here's
a typical Arabic-style poem by the great Yehuda Halevi (ca. 1075-1141):
That Night a Gazelle
That night a gazelle
of a girl showed me the sun
of her cheek and veil
of auburn hair,
like a ruby over
a moistened
crystal brow,
she looked like dawn's
fire rising —
reddening clouds
with flames.
and an epigram from the 13th Century poet known
as Nahum, from his signature:
The Poet's Distress
I've weighed out the world's evil and good
on
the scales of night and day and the seasons—
but the worst thing
I've found is the poet's distress
when he's filled with hatred, and
can't get even.
These are minor examples, but they are enough to show the
ease and the flow of the translations. As with Cole's previous two
volumes, this book offers a window onto a forgotten world, and it's
one that's worth knowing, even if — as with, say, medieval poetry
from further north — the texts can offer difficulties to those not
well-versed in the cultural background. Just being Jewish won't
be enough here, just as being Christian doesn't necessarily help
when reading Layamon, or the Gawain poet. On the other hand, poetry
tends to work best when the matter of the poem is not laid on the
surface, and it communicates well even through opacity of expression.
Such is the case here. It's a book that no reader of poetry should
be without, and Jewish readers should have it in their libraries,
regardless of whether they usually read poetry or not. It's just
one of those strange things: a great book.
Text copyright © Tony Frazer, 2007.
Translations copyright © Peter Cole
