Leah Goldberg

Leah Goldberg ( _he. לאה גולדברג, May 29, 1911 — January 15, 1970) was a prolific Hebrew poet, and a translator and researcher of Hebrew literature.

Biography

Born in Königsberg [, Germany, Leah Goldberg listed two contradictory birth places: in a 1956 biographical manuscript she wrote that she was born in Königsberg, but when filling in a form for the Israeli authors' association in 1964 she listed her birth place as Kaunas. The accepted birth place is Königsberg.] , Goldberg studied in Lithuania and Germany, specialising in philosophy and Semitic languages. She received a Ph.D. in Semitic languages from the University of Bonn in 1933, before moving to Mandatory Palestine in 1935.

Goldberg settled in Tel Aviv where she worked as a literary adviser to Habimah, the national theater, and an editor for the publishing company "Sifriyat HaPoalim" ("Workers' Library"). In 1954, she became a lecturer in literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1963, she headed the university's Department of Comparative Literature.

Goldberg, who spoke seven languages, translated numerous foreign works into Hebrew. Her translations from Russian and Italian are of particular note.

Literary style

Goldberg had a modernist literary style that may superficially look uncomplicated. She writes in a poem about her own style that "lucid and transparent / are my images". Although she sometimes chose to write poems that do not rhyme (especially in her later period), she always respected questions of rhythm; moreover, in her "antique" works (e.g., the set of love poems "The Sonnets of Theresa di Mon," a false document about the love-longings of a married French noblewoman to a young tutor), Goldberg adopted complex rhyming schemes. A very elaborate style that she sometimes used was the thirteen-line sonnet.

Loneliness and the breakdown of relationships are common themes in her poetry, with a tragic intonation that some say originates in her own loneliness. Her work is deeply rooted in Western culture (for instance, the "Odyssey") and Jewish culture. Some of her most well known poems are about nature and longing for the landscape of her homeland (and not Israel as many presume). For example:

:"My homeland, a poor and fair land":"The Queen has no home, the King has no crown":"And there are seven days of spring-time a year":"All the rest are rain and chill."

Children's literature

Goldberg's books for children, among them "Dira Lehaskir" ("Apartment for Rent") have become classics of Hebrew children's literature.

Critical acclaim

Goldberg received the "Rubin Prize" and the "Israel Prize for Literature."

References

Further reading

*"The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself" (2003), ISBN 0-8143-2485-1
* [http://www.newtranslations.org/NT1/GOLDBERG.htm "The Shortest Journey] (poem) at [http://www.newtranslations.org/index.htm New Translations] (English)
* Ofra Amihay, [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/prooftexts/v028/28.1.amihay.html "“A Candle of Freedom, a Candle of Labor, or the Candle of Judah”: Lea Goldberg’s Jewish Holiday Poems for Children,"] "Prooftexts" 28.1 (2008): 28-52.