While cynics insist that Valentine’s Day is vastly overrated, newspapers like Britain’s The Telegraph have treated readers to a selection of world-class verse to celebrate. .
Israel’s own day of love is marked in the late summer on Tu B’Av so I’ve entered the 
Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israel’s only Nobel literary laureate, immigrated from Galicia to Palestine in 1908 and returned to Europe for some years before going back to live in Jerusalem until his death in 1970.
He was strictly devout and his novels and short stories reflect the traditions and attitudes of the East European shtetl. I suggeat the piece I have chosen exemplifies why he was praised especially for the "peculiar tenderness and beauty" of his work.
As a short story of less than 850 words, I must suppose that today it would be described as a ‘flash’. But I have chosen to use it here as it is deeply lyrical and so may also be classed as an allegorical prose-poem.
With My Heart is from the short-story collection, A Dwelling Place of My People, Sixteen Stories of the Chassidim, translated from Hebrew into English by Rabbi J. Weinberg and H. Russell (Scottish Academic Press 1983).
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“With My Heart”
“I wanted to sing a song to the Shulamite, the most lovely maiden because I love the Shulamite more than all the daughters of the people; and now because the birthday of the Shulamite is near I said to myself, ‘I shall make a song and bind it up in a string of rhymes’ for that is what the poets do with their songs.
“So I went to the rhymes and said to them, ‘Please listen, rhymes; behold I am composing a song for the Shulamite, the most lovely maiden, and I come to you in order that you will give me two or three rhymes for the song which I am making for her birthday’.
“And the rhymes answered and said to me, ‘It is a good thing that you want to do, but go and bring us words and we shall give you the rhymes, according to your heart’s desire we will give you rhymes.’ I went to the words and I said to them, ‘I dearly wished to compose a song for the Shulamite, and I went to the rhymes in order that they would give me a few rhymes, and the rhymes said to me, ‘Go and bring us words and we will give you rhymes'. Now behold I come to you for the loan of words, and now lend me words for the song that I want to compose for the birthday of the Shulamite.’
“And the words listened and said: ‘The advice which the rhymes gave you was good, because without a word there is nothing. What is the most important of all is ourselves, the words; without words the thing is meaningless. So go and come to the head; perhaps it will give you an idea, and we will give you words, and you will come with the words to the rhymes and they will give you rhymes, and you will bind the words to the rhymes and compose the song to that Shulamite on her birthday’.
“So I went to the head and recounted everything, and he did not want to come with me. He said it was not proper for a man to compose songs. So what then? But I did not let him go, and I pleaded with him shamelessly until he agreed to go with me to one of the ideas in order to be with me when I came to the words and rhymes to compose the song for the Shulamite, the most lovely maiden. And we went, and we came to the idea and found him seated with wise and aged ones, and I said to the idea:
“’Behold the birthday of the Shulamite is near, and now I want to compose a song for the Shulamite. I went to the rhymes, and to the words, and they sent me to the head to speak for me before you when I come to make the song. So now please come with me to the words, and the rhymes; please arise, O idea, and come with me.’
“The idea answered and said, ‘Should I leave my place with the aged and the wise and go wandering with words and rhymes?’ The idea did not want to come with me to go to the words and the rhymes in order that the words would give me words and the rhymes give me rhymes for the song which I wanted to compose for the Shulamite, the loveliest maiden, whom I love.
“And I went out from before the idea, and I was very sad because my desire was to compose a song for the Shulamite on her birthday, and the idea would not come with me to the words and to the rhymes in order that I might make the song. And my heart found me and saw that I was sad, and my heart said to me, ‘Why are you sad?’ and I told my heart that I had gone to the rhymes and they sent me to the words, and the words sent me to the idea, and the idea sent me away empty and did not go with me, and indeed I wanted to compose a song for the Shulamite, the lovely maiden, for her birthday.
“’Now, how can I compose the song, and how can I return to the words and rhymes, if the idea is not with me?’ And my heart saw and said, ‘I shall be in your mouth, and you will compose a song for the Shulamite, loveliest of maidens, because I love the Shulamite and your songs.’
“While he was speaking he touched my mouth, and I composed the song for the Shulamite, the beautiful maiden, on her birthday; a song — which I had never sung till then, with an idea, and words, and rhymes — because my heart was with me and in my mouth.”
** The translators suggest that according to sources, the word ‘Shulamite’ may be a feminine form of Solomon.
© Natalie Wood (12 February 2016)
1 comment:
"I composed ... a song — which I had never sung till then, with an idea, and words, and rhymes — because my heart was with me and in my mouth.”
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