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A Gloom Is Cast Upon the Ancient Steps
Chapter 2. Claimants to the InheritanceHe didn’t recognize his aunt Tatyana Leonidovna in the old woman who met him on the platform. “The years had left an indelible imprint… More
A Fahrenheit 450 Story
This is a Fahrenheit 450 story, only hot enough to burn my butt, no blazing tale of the censorship wars. While heroic writers speaking truth to power face secret… More
Dracula Is a Pain in the Neck and So Is “Self-censorship”
My brother’s favorite game was “strangle.” As I remember the rules, he would pretend to strangle me, and I, so happy to get my older brother’s attention, waited till… More
Shelomo Ibn Gabirol (1021/22 – c. 1057/58)
Philosopher, misanthrope, and spectacular fly in the ointment of the refined eleventh-century Andalusian-Jewish elite, Shelomo Ibn Gabirol, the second major poet of the period, comes down to us as… More
Yosef Qimhi
Born in southern Spain, Yosef Qimhi was father to a famous line of sons who distinguished themselves in various fields of learning, particularly Hebrew grammar and biblical commentary. Sometime… More
Moshe Ibn Ezra (c. 1055 — after 1138)
Balance, calm employment of ornament, clarity of presentation as well as emotion—these are the traits that characterize the poetry of the third major poet of the period, Moshe Ibn… More
Yosef Qimhi: The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain
Poems from The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492, (Princeton University Press).Translated from the Arabic by Peter ColePeter Cole is the recipient of… More
Shmu’el Hanagid (993 – 1056)
The major poets of the period emerge in the third generation, and they are masters of their art in every respect and giants in the history of Hebrew literature.… More