Dan Pagis was an Israeli poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, lecturer and holocaust survivor. He was born in Rădăuţi

Radauti

Rădăuţi is a municipality in Suceava County, Romania with a population of 27,759 inhabitants.-Geography and demographics:Rădăuţi is situated in Bucovina, northern Moldavia, on a plain between the Suceava and Suceviţa rivers, north from Suceava, at 375 m altitude...

, Bukovina

Bukovina

Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...

 in Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 and imprisoned as a child in a concentration camp in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. He escaped in 1944 and in 1946 arrived safely in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 where he became a schoolteacher in a kibbutz

Kibbutz

A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...

.

He earned his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...

 where he later taught Medieval Hebrew literature. His first published book of poetry was Sheon ha-Tsel ("The Shadow Clock") in 1959. In 1970 he published a major work entitled Gilgul – which may be translated as "Revolution, cycle, transformation, metamorphosis, metempsychosis," etc. Other poems include: "Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car," "Testimony, "Europe, Late," "Autobiography," and "Draft of a Reparations Agreement." Pagis knew many languages, and translated multiple works of literature.

He died in Israel on July 29, 1986, after a battle with cancer.

Pagis' most widely-cited poem is :

written in pencil in the sealed railway car

here in this carload
I am eve
with abel my son
if you see my older son
cain son of adam
tell him that I

Poetry

• The Shadow Dial[Sifriat Poalim, 1959 [Shaon Ha-Hol,
• Late Leisure[Sifriat Poalim, 1964 [Sheut Meuheret,
• Transformation[Massada/Hebrew Writers Association, 1970 [Gilgul,
• Brain[Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1975 [Moah,
• Double Exposure[Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1982 [Milim Nirdafot,
• Twelve Faces[Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1984 [Shneim Asar Panim,
• Last Poems[Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1987 [Shirim Aharonim,
• Collected Poems[Hakibbutz Hameuchad/Bialik Institute, 1991 [Col Ha-Shirim,

Books for Children

• The Egg That Disguised Itself[Am Oved, 1973; 1994 [Ha-Beitzah She-Hithapsah,

Non-Fiction

• The Poems of Levi Ibn Al-Tabban[Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1968 [Shirei Levi Ibn Alatabban,
• Secular Poetry and Poetic Theory: Moses Ibn-Ezra and his Contemporaries[Bialik Institute, 1970 [Shirat Ha-Hol Ve-Torat Ha-Shir Le-Moshe Eben Ezra U-Vnei Doro,
• Change and Tradition in Secular Poetry: Spain and ItalyKeter, 1976,
• The Scarlet Thread – Hebrew Love Poems from Spain, Italy, Turkey and the Yemen [edited by Dan Pagis), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1979 [Ke-Hut Ha-Shani)
• A Secret Sealed[Magnes- Hebrew University, 1986 [Al Sod Hatum,
• Poetry Aptly Explained – Studies and Essays on Medieval Hebrew Poetry [The Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1993 [Ha-Shir Davur Al Ofanav,

Books in Translation

• Selected Poems, English: Princeton, Quarterly Review of Literature Series, 1992; London, Menard Press, 1972; Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1981; Berkeley, University of California Press, 1996; San Francisco, North Point, 1989
• German: An beiden Ufern der Zeit, Tr. Anne Birkenhauer, Straelen, Straelener Manuskripte, 2003, ISBN 3-89107-050-0; Erdichteter Mensch, Tr. Tuvia Ruebner, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, Juedischer Verlag 1993, ISBN 978-3-633-54083-9
• Spanish: Granada, Univ. de Granada, 1994
• The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself
  The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself
  The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself is an anthology of modern Hebrew poetry, presented in the original language, with a transliteration into Roman script, a literal translation into English, and commentaries and explanations....
  
  (2003), ISBN 0-8143-2485-1
• Variable Directions, Tr. Stephen Mitchell, San Francisco: Northpoint, 1989.
• Poems, Tr. Stephen Mitchell, Oxford: Carcanet Press, 1972.

Further reading

• Karl A. Plank: Eve of the Boxcar. In: Plank: Mother of the Wire Fence. Inside and Outside the Holocaust. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1994, pp. 42–57. ISBN 0-664-25219-2
• Robert Alter: Dan Pagis and the poetry of displacement, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0411/is_n4_v45/ai_19016959

Sources

• HistoryNet
• BiographieNet