Jerusalem Post / August 17, 1973
By
Miriam Arad
Not strictly for children, unless they're over 12 and thoughtful, is poet Avraham Regelson's BEIT HANITZOTZ, בית הניצוץ, The House of the Spark, Dvir, 110 pp.(vowel-pointed), a collection of legends, American folk tales, views, observations and reflections, and, at the end, the poet's impressions from visits to two young kibbutzim. Regelson is wonderful with pure descriptions, a sick dog lying down to die, the New York subway at rush-hour, the sea, a kibbutz celebration. But of course his description is hardly ever really "pure", as the poet muses on what he has seen to draw a philosophical conclusion from it. He reflects upon life and art, and living versus art – "It is a great thing for a man to earn his bread in the sweat of his brow, but to compose a fair phrase such as 'In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread' – that too is a great thing" – upon anti-Semitism – in the shape of a mock dialogue between Haman and Ahasverus – or upon the reason why the Torah was given in the desert.
|
