Zie ook onder boekhandel Due Passi. epic poem written by Isaac Lamdan, and illustrated by Nahum Gutman, one of Israel?s best known painters. Bound in brown boards, with 14 block print illustrations. ?Lamdan's magnum opus, Massadah (1927) , an epic poem in blank verse of six cantos, comprising 35 poems, established his reputation. The poem reflects the spirit of the young pioneers of the 1920s who had left behind them not only the memory of the... (Judaica Jewish Jewry Judaism Juif Juives Juden Judisch Joden Judios Art Artistic Creative Creativity Illustrated Drawings)
Lamdan (1899-1954) was a "Hebrew poet and editor. Born in Mlinov, Ukraine, Lamdan received a traditional and secular education. During World War I he was cut off from his family and wandered through southern Russia with his brother, who was later killed in a pogrom. These grim experiences made Lamdan rally to the Communist cause and he volunteered for the Red Army at the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. Disillusionment, however, soon set in because as a Jew he could not feel at home in the revolutionary movement. He left the army and returned to Mlinov, which had been annexed to Poland. There he became a teacher at the local Hebrew school and published his first poem in Ha-Shilo?ah. Immigrating to Erez Israel in 1920, he spent his first years as a halutz, building roads and working on farms. His poetry, now imbued with a ? Alutz spirit that grew out of his experience, was published in various literary journals in Erez Israel and aroused great interest since it reflected the hopes and despair of the Third Aliyah and also the struggles and inner conflicts of the individual ? Alutz. He later gave up physical labor and devoted himself exclusively to literary work, from 1934 until his death publishing and editing his own literary monthly Gilyonot. He was a member of the central committee of the Hebrew Writers Association for many years. Lamdan?s magnum opus, Massadah [this work], an epic poem in blank verse of six cantos, comprising 35 poems, established his reputation. The poem reflects the spirit of the young pioneers of the 1920s who had left behind them not only the memory of the brutal senseless murders of defenseless Jews, but also their shattered illusions about the possibility of establishing a free, revolutionary society in Eastern Europe. Massadah, the last fortress which continued to hold out against the Romans even after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C. E. , in Lamdan?s poem symbolizes Erez Israel, the last stronghold of the destroyed Eastern European Jewish communities. The voice throughout the poem is the "I" of the poet who embodies both the horror experienced by his generation and its vision for a new future. In the first canto the poet, standing in the midst of the ruins of his home, at the height of the Russian Revolution, receives a message about Massadah: "face of the adverse fate of generations" the sons of Massadah have thrust out their "breasts in revolt and roared ?Enough! ?" He sets out for the Promised Land in order to join them. His path to Massadah is obstructed by three friends who symbolize the various anti-Zionist or Diaspora-oriented ideologies and who try to turn him back. By an overwhelming act of will, the speaker frees himself from his friends and scales the barriers blocking access to Israel's stronghold. The second canto is a series of short poems in which the different Jewish refugees who came to Massadah describe their tragic experiences. Cantos three, four, and five are movements from joyful hope to despair. Night, "in which the air is heavy with blood, " transforms into a time for kindling fires, dancing, and the renewal of faith. Night thus becomes a symbol of strength and hope while day is a time of despair and disillusionment. The fortress itself weeps for her listless sons. The ecstasy of the early movement is passed, the verve of pioneering among the weaker is spent and they fall to the wayside. Fewer and fewer of those imbued with the spirit of freedom throng to Massadah, and peddlers, longing to engage in commerce, increase. Not only the fires but also the "flames of revolt" brought to Massadah as "holy Sabbath candles in the twilight of the worlds" flicker faintly, yet they are not extinguished. There are always those who stand guard over Massadah watching "every cloud rising somewhere over.