Met die nuutste uitgawe van Poetry International Web word daar gefokus op die digkuns van Esther Raab (1894 – 1981), een van Israel se bykans vergete vrouedigters. Volgens die inleidende kommentaar word sy dikwels voorgehou as Israel se eerste Israeliesgebore vrouedigter; ten spyte daarvan dat sy 52 jaar vóór die totstandkoming van die Israeliese staat in die destydse Palestina gebore is.
“She is celebrated as a nature poet, said to be reflecting the Land of Israel as the new Jewish context – almost as if she simply mirrored what she saw. Nonetheless, or perhaps because of this, she has often been ignored in surveys of Hebrew poetry: her work is missing from T. Carmi’s seminal Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse (1981) and from both editions of The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself (1st ed. 1965; 2nd ed. 2003), an omission rectified, of course, in the definitive anthology of women’s poetry in Hebrew, The Defiant Muse (1999). Raab, whose poetry is thematically daring and technically innovative, surely deserves close attention.” (Liza Katz)
Maar dit is as erotiese digter wat haar seksualiteit as vrou ten volle in haar gedigte uitsê, wat sy beroemd geraak het búíte die grense van haar vaderland. In ‘n artikel oor die seksuele aard van Raab se digkuns, vergelyk Harold Schimmel haar met Emily Dickinson en ook Marianne Moore. In nog ‘n artikel deur Hamutal Tsamir, wat as dosent in Hebreeuse letterkunde aan die Ben Gurion Universiteit verbonde is, ontleed hy die politieke aspekte rondom die ontvangs van Raab se poësie: “Raab’s closeness to nature,” skryf hy, ” is used to support the idea of the naturalness of Zionism: an existence seemingly prior to politics, or one that justifies realpolitik. In order to do so, this sensual woman poet must seem universal – that is, male. Only despite the fact that she is a woman – only by being perceived as a male poet, can Raab be seen as a universalist, and therefore, a true poet; and – as ‘one of us’ – joining those assembled in the appropriated national landscape [. . .] of the local-Israeli or cosmopolitan, modernist story of her literary generation, the generation of the [establishment of the] state of Israel. In other words, the disregard for Raab’s feminine gender is exactly the condition for her acceptance into the [Hebrew poetry] canon.”
Ter illustrasie plaas ek een van Esther Raab se vroeëre gedigte onder aan vanoggend se Nuuswekker. Gaan kyk gerus ook by Poetry International Web en verlustig jou aan die artikels en die gedigte van haar wat nou opgeneem is.
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Vanoggend is daar weer twee nuwe blogs om op te fokus: Andries Bezuidenhout worstel met die knypers van uiters gevorderde robotiese tuie en Jo Prins besing weer die skoonheid van ‘n donker pinotage uit Smellington se omstreke …
Genoeg leesstof om die naweek ‘n blymoedige affêre te maak.
So, geniet dit. Nuuswekker hervat weer Maandag.
Mooi bly.
LE
Thus will you love me
and day after day rend your heart for me –
for I will never
be your beloved;
since only on heights-of-sorrow
do we rest
and we will not descend
to the baseness of couches in rooms;
for I lie in wait still
beneath the warm eucalyptus trees –
crazed with love.
© Esther Raab (1926. Vertaling deur Harold Schimmel)