Language as Destiny, Destiny in Language
On October 6, 1921, Lea Goldberg—a precocious ten-year-old, already whispered about among the neighbors and at school as a promising poet—records the first entry in her diary. Her mother tongues are Russian and German, and she writes her poems and stories in Russian, but the diary, she decides, will be in Hebrew, a language she began to study the year before at the Hebrew gymnasium in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania. Soon, she will start writing her poems and stories exclusively in Hebrew. She will memorize The Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, and will translate the great Russian poet, Alexander Blok (1880-1921), into Hebrew. As will become apparent in a few short years, this early commitment to Hebrew will determine the course of Goldberg's life.
Inevitably, Goldberg's personal history coincides with the upheavals of the 20th century, both in Europe and in the Middle East. And so the diary she kept for 45 years (from 1921 to 1966) is not only a biographical and literary document of great significance, but also a fascinating historical one. The Diaries cover Goldberg's childhood in Kovno; her years as a student in Berlin and Bonn; her early years in Palestine where she emigrated in 1935; her entry into the literary scene, the cafés where she would sit alone or in the company of poets, usually the only woman at the table. Then come the momentous years in the State of Israel, the witnessing of its birth, her association and friendship with other poets and writers, among them Avraham Shlonsky, S.Y. Agnon, Sir Isaiah Berlin, Max Brod, Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, and, most notably, poet Avraham Ben Yitzhak Sonne (friend of Hermann Broch, Arthur Schnitzler, Robert Musil, and Elias Canetti).
Many pages could be filled with her curriculum vitae, but perhaps it suffices to say that she holds a place in Hebrew literature comparable to that of Emily Dickinson in the United States. Young poets flocked to her, and Goldberg, generous and encouraging, helped publish the first poems of a new and emerging generation of poets: Yehuda Amichai, Dahlia Ravikovitch, Dan Pagis, T. Carmi, to name a few. The late Dahlia Ravikovitch described her first impression of Goldberg thus: “It was like meeting Queen Elizabeth.”
A national treasure and a rich trove for scholars and researchers, Goldberg is recognized as one of the finest Hebrew poets of the modern era. She was also a beloved author of children's stories, poems, and songs, and was a highly regarded theater critic, playwright, literary scholar, editor, and teacher. In 1952, she joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and helped establish the Department of Comparative Literature, which she headed until her death in January, 1970.
- Tsipi Keller
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