Sep 2016
I saw a portrait of Uri Zvi Greenberg,
it showed an older man
perhaps twice my age,
with no recognizable poetic traits in his face,
perhaps had they shown a young man
it would've been different?
I saw a portrait of Miklos Radnoti
he died as a young man,
with no recognizable poetic traits in his face,
and I have nearly lived his full life,
perhaps if they had shown a child
it would've been different?
I saw a portrait of Anne Frank
whom all the world knows.
I am twice her age,
it's not different
it's worse
peace comes regardless of age
it begins for the living
at the expense of the dead.
I saw a portrait from when I was a child,
like the opening lines of
the epic poem I am becoming,
I will not be a national treasure
like the Kalevala
or Shahnameh
I will be immortalized
like all the unnamed citizens
of Uruk
remembered merely because they lived there,
whose names are unknown
like those
who did not leave a diary,
or a notebook of poems,
and like sheep to the slaughter
did not live to my time to read them.
it showed an older man
perhaps twice my age,
with no recognizable poetic traits in his face,
perhaps had they shown a young man
it would've been different?
I saw a portrait of Miklos Radnoti
he died as a young man,
with no recognizable poetic traits in his face,
and I have nearly lived his full life,
perhaps if they had shown a child
it would've been different?
I saw a portrait of Anne Frank
whom all the world knows.
I am twice her age,
it's not different
it's worse
peace comes regardless of age
it begins for the living
at the expense of the dead.
I saw a portrait from when I was a child,
like the opening lines of
the epic poem I am becoming,
I will not be a national treasure
like the Kalevala
or Shahnameh
I will be immortalized
like all the unnamed citizens
of Uruk
remembered merely because they lived there,
whose names are unknown
like those
who did not leave a diary,
or a notebook of poems,
and like sheep to the slaughter
did not live to my time to read them.
This poem was published in EUROPEAN JUDAISM (UK) 34:2 (Autumn 2001), p. 153.
U.Z. Greenberg (1894-1981) was an Israeli poet born in what is now Ukraine. His views were rightwing and he was associated with the party of Menahem Begin. He wrote powerful and sometimes lurid poems about the Holocaust.
Miklos Radnoti (1909-1944) a martyred Hungarian Jewish poet.
Anne Frank (1929-1945) young Jewish diarist martyred at Bergen Belsen and made famous posthumously with the publication of her wartime diary.
Kalevala-Finnish national epic.
Shahnameh- Persian "Book of Kings" an Iranian national epic by Firdawsi (c. CE 935-1020/26).
Uruk-setting of the Epic of Gilgamesh
last four lines all refer to the writings of Anne Frank (diary), Radnoti (notebook of poems) and "like sheep..." is a line taken from Greenberg's poem TO GOD IN EUROPE, part III No Other Instances.
U.Z. Greenberg (1894-1981) was an Israeli poet born in what is now Ukraine. His views were rightwing and he was associated with the party of Menahem Begin. He wrote powerful and sometimes lurid poems about the Holocaust.
Miklos Radnoti (1909-1944) a martyred Hungarian Jewish poet.
Anne Frank (1929-1945) young Jewish diarist martyred at Bergen Belsen and made famous posthumously with the publication of her wartime diary.
Kalevala-Finnish national epic.
Shahnameh- Persian "Book of Kings" an Iranian national epic by Firdawsi (c. CE 935-1020/26).
Uruk-setting of the Epic of Gilgamesh
last four lines all refer to the writings of Anne Frank (diary), Radnoti (notebook of poems) and "like sheep..." is a line taken from Greenberg's poem TO GOD IN EUROPE, part III No Other Instances.
