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Chapter 7 During the Days of Spiritual Awakening (Hisoyreres)
My whole being trembles when there float before my eyes the holidays in
Semyatitsh. My father and mother pass by with their tender love and
awesome respect for the customs and commandments, especially of the High
Holidays. The days of the month of Elul were suffused with reverential
dread (furkhtikayt). Sabbaths come and go and the year's end approaches
and the Jews were engrossed in devoutness (yires-shoma'im). No small
matter, the High Holidays impending, days of purification and elevation.
Jews carried out a general cleansing twice a year, a half year separating
the two events.
One was a cleaning of the home and a cleaning and polishing of its utensils in honor of the holiday of freedom. The second was another kind of cleansing, an inner one, a cleaning of the spirit, wiping off a year's accumulated filth so as to enter the new year purified. Purification means, too, no insults, no anger, no resentments, no staying mad at one another. That is the way Jews in Semyatitsh, from the opening days of Elul till the onset of the High Holidays, used to open a new chapter in their relations with one another. Our fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers considered it necessary to cleanse our souls and carry out an earnest examination of oneself and of the world.
Preparing for a great event can be as important as the event itself. Elul was the season for preparing oneself for the High Holidays. In order to be ready, you went about in an Elul mood (mit elel-shtimungen) for the entire month. The blowing of the ram's horn (dos shoyfer-blozn) in the "Khaye-odem" besmedresh announced to the entire shtetl that the days of reckoning (din-vekhe'zhbm) had begun. Yellow leaves dropped from the trees and Jews told one another that even the trees knew it was Elul. Hasidim claimed that the trees in the forest were also being called to a day of judgement (yom-hadi'n). Scholars teaching Talmud classes to the public took the occasion to discourse on Elul, on the sounding of the ram's horn, on the Days of Awe, on the concealed ways of God, on the world and on the Jews. They said that Elul was the time to reflect as to where one stood in the world.
I once heard one of the scholars telling a story about a hasidic rabbi (guter-yid) who led a life of wandering as penance for the Exile (opgerikht goles) and who had gotten lost and had to spend the night in the woods. It was the eve of the first day of Elul (rosh-khoydesh elel) and so he rose early and began to pray. As soon as he ended his prayers, he heard the leaves and branches of the trees tremble, from which he understood that they had heard the blowing of the ram's horn.
It made him sad to think he had missed hearing the blowing of the shofar, and he burst out crying at the top of his voice. Someone with a shofar in his hand then appeared before him and spoke as follows, "Do you wonder how the trees and grass hear the blowing of the shofar?" The Day of Reckoning is for everyone, for all of God's creatures, and the blowing of the shofar is for everyone, for heaven and earth, woods and fields, rivers and seas, vegetables and grass. Since you never missed the first blowing of the shofar, your lament was accepted. Here is a shofar for you." As soon as he finished blowing the shofar, the figure disappeared. All those who heard the scholar's story continued to sit at the table, pensive. They saw plainly that this was a call to repentance, to an earnest self-reckoning and a reckoning with the world.
Semyatitsh Jews knew what Heaven required of them during those days. They knew that a person's life was futile and that there was really no difference between one person and the next and between the human person, the crown of Creation, and other creatures on the earth. The more one considered the greatness of Creation, the more shallow appeared one's own accomplishments. The sound of the shofar, like a net, covered the the shtetl with a light curtain of thoughtfulness and cast the secret of Elul over all. When I think back to those days it seems to me that the sun shone with a tearful gleam and that the secret which the shofar brought with it spread throughout the entire shtetl and further, too, to the shady harvested fields and as far as the woods. People returned home from the besmedresh deep in thought, still reflecting on Elul, on the oncoming Days of Awe, on the Day of Reckoning.
I have lived in many cities and countries, experienced much, joy and sorrow, but my most powerful memories are those of Elul in Semyatitsh. The last days of Elul are very special. Just as the evenings before a holiday were cheerful, so the Elul-days were sad. As the High Holidays approached, each day weighed more heavily on the spirit, and fear (eyme) of the Day of Reckoning became a part of nature and of the soul of every Jew in the shtetl. Two periods on the Jewish calendar are dedicated to purification and renewal: that of Nissan and that of Elul and Tishre. The latter two months are the most deeply engraved on my soul and I carry with me to this very day what I then experienced. I recall that Saturday evening before Jewish New Year's Day (rosheshone), the first penitential prayers (slikhes) were recited. After midnight, all the synagogues and prayer-houses, including the Slonim shtibl, were filled with worshipers, a frightened look on their faces. All wanted to be true penitents that night and to feel themselves free of sin.
Jews came to midnight prayers (khtsos) even from nearby villages, from wherever Jews lived. You would hear the echoes of horses' hoofs in the dark penitential-night (slikhes-nakht). You knew then that it was late and that the prayer-leader (bal-tfile) stood in his place (omed) wrapped in his prayer-shawl (tales) and white linen robe (kitl) and sang out a Kaddish prayer ("yisgadal veyiskadash") which poured dread over the sleeping lanes. The congregation echoed the prayer-leader word for word and with the same melody. Some shook the heavens with their bitter weeping. Hidden behind the words of the prayers were thoughts about problems at home and in the family. The cries of Jewish fathers and greybeards cut deep into the dense night. Now, in my older years, I again recall the supplicatory prayer, "Cast me not off in my old age" ("al tashlikheynu leeys zikno"), [44]words which emitted a strange fear.
I see myself as a small child striding beside my father to the penitential services, which were also held in the later dim daybreak hours. The cold penetrated my bones and my body shivered. You only warmed up once you were inside the besmedresh, which was all lit up with many candles and extra-bright lamps (blits-lompn). [45] Young and old were gathered there. The cantor, wrapped in his prayer-shawl, recited the "Thirteen Virtues" (shloshesre-mides). His voice and the melody went through me. I felt my father choking back his tears and, pitying him greatly, I burst out crying. Father and the other worshipers were moved by my piety, finding in my weeping a sign that I understood the meaning of the penitential prayers.
During the penitential days I made a special effort not to talk too much, speak ill of anyone or repeat gossip. I too wanted to arrive at Judgement Day clean and purified. Together with the adults I practically screamed the words of the prayer, "The soul is yours and the body is yours, have pity on your handiwork." In those days in Semyatitsh there was also a season for High Holiday prayer-books (makhzoyrim), prayer-shawls and prayer belts (gartlen); for large wax candles and low, wide memorial candles (neshome-likht). Many homes also bought new doorpost-amulets (mezuzes) as a remedy (zgule) to ward off illness, demons (nisht-gute), ghosts (rikhes) and all kinds of devils (mazikim). Day and night, men and women went to the cemetery to unburden their hearts by the graves of kinsmen, whom they called by name, and implored to intervene for them in Heaven.
In the evenings, preachers (magidim) from afar would come to the besmedresh to call for spiritual awakening, for repentance. There were some Jews who were so pious that in order to be further removed from materiality, from dependence on earthly needs, and to elevate their spirits, fasted more than half way through the first day of Elul. My father, however, sought during these days to help others with money and words of comfort. He wanted every Jew to be filled with love of his people and friendly relations among Jews. That is how my father understood the meaning of repentance and self-examination. The individual must always check his conscience to make certain he is not too involved in pursuing material pleasures or glory, and in achieving these things at the expense of other people.
He once told me that the danger of large and brutal sins was sometimes smaller than that of more "delicate" sins that are less likely to be noticed. In every person, my father said, there are wicked tendencies, inclinations to do evil. However, he can overcome them through sparks of love of the Jewish People, which are to be found in every Jew. Therefore one had to seek ways to raise oneself through repentance and self-examination.
Mother used to say, "Just look at how fast the year goes by. You hustle and bustle until it's suddenly Elul. Why all the bustle in the foolish world? Elul arrives and you catch yourself" ("khapt men zikh ersht"). It is hard for me to pull myself away from my memories: through open windows you heard children studying and their voices already announced the High Holidays. Not far from our courtyard [46] lived a High Holidays cantor (yomim-nero'im-khazn) and I heard him singing to himself abstractedly, sadly and touchingly "Haneshomo shelekho vehaguf shelekho" ('The soul is yours and the body is yours') and in my own fashion I unconsciously began to hum a tune without words (a volekhl), woven with sincere thoughts.
In the "Khaye-odem" besmedresh I heard Jews say that things had changed for the worse. "There was another generation then, a generation of people with good minds and warm hearts, with faith and devotion an entirely different generation." This is what a Slonim Hasid said, an elderly man with a distinguished beard (hadres-po'nim bord), who was known as a virtuous (erlekh) man as well as a Hasid. When I recall those years, I could go on talking about them forever, day in and day out, without ever growing tired of them.
At home, too, there were reminders of Elul. On one occasion we needed to buy a new makhzer, on another some other holiday item, but for the most part we felt Elul in the besmedresh. Jews sat there deep in thought, bent over ethical treatises (muser-sforim) and with tears in their eyes. At afternoon prayers in Elul there were more worshippers than usual and after the afternoon prayers (minkhe) they stayed for the evening prayers (mayrev). They sat at the long tables, sighed and told stories of Hasidic rabbis (gute-yidn).
Once a preacher (magid) came, an old Jew with a frail body, and overgrown beard and earlocks. He came just before the afternoon prayers and delivered a sermon (droshe). He spoke with a tearful melody (nign) and his parables (mesholim) fired my childish fantasy. He compared the world to the sea and the person's life to a ship at sea. The person is the captain of the ship. When he sails his ship wisely and virtuously, obeying all laws, he need not fear the waves. He then moved to the idea that God had given man a gift, a clear soul, clean and radiant. Therefore people must praise and thank God night and day for his magnificent gift. One needs to keep in mind that the soul must be returned clean and radiant to its Creator in the next world.
Why has all this remained so inscribed in my memory? It seems that I responded to the honesty of the preacher's words. He virtually begged with tears as well as shouted louder and louder that it was Elul in the world, that the High Holidays were approaching and he began to paint Hell (dos genem) in the most fearful colors. He then passed over to Paradise (ganeyden), which he painted in the most marvelous light and he promised it to all who would earn it by their good deeds.
As a child I listened to that fierce exhorter (beyzn moykhiekh), to his cries (koyles), which petrified every limb with the fear of dark Hell, and I greatly longed for bright Paradise. Deep in my heart I desired to be free of sin. I recall Father saying it was wrong to frighten people so with such a terrifying Hell. One should also have pity on Jews. You can awaken people with an explanation of a Bible passage (dvar-toyre) or a word of comfort . Writing now about Elul-days in Semyatitsh, I again feel that same shudder and the same thoughts pierce my mind: perhaps I don't yet have enough good deeds (maysim-toyvim)? [47] I knew that other Jews in Semyatitsh also thought in this way.
It was Autumn outdoors and Autumn-like in the soul. Cool winds were already blowing. Mother took care that I was warmly dressed when I left for penitential prayers (slikhes) before daybreak. Wrapped in their overcoats (mantlen), Jews walked through the dark little streets (geslekh), which echoed with the sexton's knocking on Jewish doors and shutters and the soul-catching words he sang out, "Arise, arise Jews, for penitential prayers" ("Shteyt uf, sheyt uf yidn, tsu slikhes'). To compensate, however, it was warm and lit up inside the besmedresh. The prayer-leader from his place (omed) recited the "Thirteen Virtues" (shloshesre-mides) and asked the Creator of the World (boyre-oylem) to utter his fatherly word: "I have forgiven!" (Heb. solakhti).
After the penitential hymns were recited, the regular prayer service was held. Many left, each to his own occupation, to his daily toil. But there were those who stayed behind and talked ethics (muser-reyd) as regards devoutness (yires-shomaim) and love of the Jewish People (ahavas-yisroel). I certainly didn't understand much of what these terms meant, but I felt that they were important and I tried to think them through. I wanted to ask my melamed what they meant, but it seemed to me that he himself was to be pitied I had heard him mutter to himself with a sigh, "How can one endure it? It is so terrible ."
On another occasion, perhaps because there was a pause in religious talk, the besmedresh youths from deep in their hearts broke out in a song without words. The song was an ardent prayer voicing the faith which lived within these young men, whom I see before me as though they were present in reality. At that time I wanted badly to learn from them how they pray and stay together (mispalel-tsu-zayn un haltn-zikh tsuzamen). Singing was a part of their way of life and their melodies held glowing fire and ecstatic anticipation of complete Redemption. It now seems to me that every situation, every mood had its own tune for the besmedresh Jews, young and old, and that through these tunes they extended their faith, their hope -- their life. The difference between one song and the other was not accidental but intentional. Their songs searched the depths of feeling, action and thought.
Those days and nights of Elul in Semyatitsh are unforgettable and steeped in secrets. It seemed as though the sins of mankind collected to oppress heaven and earth, and I was sure that my plea, the prayer of a small Jewish boy, joined the prayers and entreaties (takhnunim) of the adults of the entire shtetl. Of all the performances (forshtelungen) I witnessed as a child, the most powerful scene was Jewish New Year's Day (rosheshone) in Semyatitsh.
Added to this was the picture the melamed drew for us so clearly in kheyder. He told us how during these awesome days the entire heavenly tribunal (pamal'yo-shel-maalo) sits over a large record book in which are inscribed all one's deeds of the past year, and judges accordingly. I visualized this scene in all its details how the heavenly judges sat around the gigantic book and read from its pages the deeds of every person on the face of the earth, especially of every Jew, man and woman, child and adult, of our shtetl Semyatitsh. Everything that each of us had done was inscribed there. Not a single slight movement, not a single feeling or thought were omitted, not a single sin was forgotten. As soon as a name was called out, the person's page was found and the accounting began, the reckoning of his sins.
In my imagination I clearly saw how each person's guardian angel (sar), the overseer (memune) of his fate (goyrl), read aloud to the judges what was written on his page. When he finished, the weighing and re-weighing began. The accusing angel (kateyger) and defending angel (saneyger) entered; no small matter a life in the other world was at stake. The final sum and the content of the deeds alone determined whether the person being judged lived or died in the coming year. If he lived, what sort of life? If he died, what sort of death would be decreed for him? I don't believe I was the only one; all the Jewish children in Semyatitsh saw this in their imaginations clearly, saw how the names were called, and saw all the kinds of life and death. I also saw before my eyes the descriptions of the preacher (magid) and of the melamed in kheyder.
The trial itself, I strongly believed, took place during Jewish New Year's Day (di teg fun rosheshone), [48] at which time the person's actions, from little to great, were inscribed and characterized. The verdict was signed on the Day of Atonement (yonkiper). Though the latter was the more significant event, crucial in terms of staying alive or not, more disturbing and gripping for me was the Jewish New Year's Day scene of the recording and weighing of human deeds. I stood next to Father in the besmedresh and when the words "May it be inscribed for the New Year" (der rosheshone yikhtevun) were recited, I readied myself with racing heart to hear that now, now my page from the book of reckoning would surface as from a deep wood; there all my sins of the past year were inscribed, my page had been picked and the voice of my guardian angel, a strict angel, would soon read out my sins one by one, one by one.
A shudder went through me and at the same time a feeling of being about to faint even though I knew that before my thirteenth birthday (bar-mitsve) I was not liable for my deeds; yet I felt that it wasn't possible to be wholly free of responsibility, even at age ten or eleven. I was ready to receive my punishment with love and with the pride that I was a full Jew and therefore merited punishment for my sins. Indeed, I felt that it was a privilege to be a full Jew. Imagining that my prayer was accepted and that my name was called out in Heaven, I broke out in a sweat.
Even today I think, What wonderful thoughts lie in the deep belief that there is a Divine Eye which sees all, and that there is a Book in which everything a person does is recorded. When, in later years, I heard Y.-L. Perets' poem, "The World is Not an Inn" ("Di velt iz nisht keyn kretshme"), recited, the Jewish New Year's Day scene reappeared to me: how on the strength of the deeds inscribed in the Book of Reckoning a person's life and fate are decided, and the thought that awareness of the understanding judgement gives one power to guide the further course of his life in the days and nights of the coming year. I also think that if the peoples of the world had had such a vision before them, of everyone standing equally before judgement, all deeds being accurately recorded and accounting having to be given for all of them, perhaps then we would not have come to such horrible massacres and destruction, to gas chambers and crematoria, to blood-soaked Nazism, the most terrible desecration of humanity.
Since the murderous Shoa, the mass death of the Jews during World War II, whole libraries of books have been written testimonies, histories and chronicles. Whole mountains of books have been written about the atrocities of the Nazis. Philosophic and scientific works are being written, too. But has any of this helped to change the world? Have people really and truly examined what happened? Don't we see antisemitism raging again in the diaspora, the world having already forgotten what happened? I believe that all those books lack the power of the pages of the Book of Reckoning, open for judgement of the world. Those books are not a "Let them be inscribed" (yikhtevun) of a divine hand, which responds to all so as to make each person responsible for himself.
Again there wakes in me the fantasy of my childhood years and I regret that the nations of the world refuse to listen to a divine force reading aloud the list of sins and crimes being committed. And that is why there is missing today the belief in a new world of justice and righteousness, as the Jews of Semyatitsh understood it. The world lacks the Jewish New Year's Day, which was given to enable us to free ourselves, at least internally, in our hearts, from the dominion of sin and evil. The little Jewish boy in Semyatitsh understood that acceptance of the Kingdom of Heaven (malkhes-shomaim) was the central motif in the prayers of the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement. As early as the kheyder, the melamed taught that the prayers are called "of the realm" (malkhuyes), since they proclaim God's realm, his authority over the world, the reign of truth and righteousness.
In later years, when I understood better the content and meaning of the Jewish New Year prayers, I grasped, too, that the concept of fear of God, of fear of Heaven (yires-shomaim), had a deeper meaning. It was a concept of reverence (yires-hakoved), of majestic esteem and respect for the Judge and Conscience of the World. I had a like feeling of respect for Father and Mother; my fear (moyre) of them was not physical but moral. To me, Father and Mother were moral personalities whom I respected and whose feelings I always considered, avoiding any action that might cause them distress (agmes-nefesh).
Indeed, that is why I devote so much space in these memoirs to my childhood. I remember how my father held my hand going to and coming from the synagogue (shil). In his large hand my father held my small child's hand. He held it fast, securely, and I felt the warmth of his hand. He was a protector and a support for me not only physically, being bigger and stronger, but also spiritually. I love to recall those times. A holiday breeze chased through the narrow streets and Father's hand was so deep, so encompassing, that it seemed to give me power, seemed to strengthen my footsteps. Not only a breeze but even storm winds will not tear me from my father's firm, warm hand. All the Gentiles around Semyatitsh will not tear my father's hand from mine. [49]
I also sensed Father's strength in the besmedresh, where the mood was an elevated one; despite the holiday air, in their hearts people were afraid. The adult males swayed back and forth with their prayer-shawls pulled completely over their heads. The women in the women's section (ezres-noshim) wore their holiday jewels pearls and earrings, their white silk kerchiefs, their pretty dresses. By the pulpit (omed) large candles burned with a yellow flame, which expressed the feelings of the worshipers every heart quaked.
These images inscribe themselves in the memory forever. I still see those Jews, how they fill the besmedresh. The cantor has placed himself at his desk (omed) and the choristers accompanying him have assumed their positions. Everyone has been carried away by the melody which has pierced their hearts. Suddenly the voice of {the cantor} during the prayer became more resolute: "Be afraid" (uvekhen ten pakhdekho). In the course of time I have gone deeper into the meaning of that prayer. "Spread your fear over your entire work and your dread over all your creatures and let all fear you whom you created and let them all bow before you and let them become one to do your will with all their heart."
In later years it was clear to me that this prayer concerns not only fear; only naive persons will believe that its purpose is to frighten all the creatures in the world. I believe that we must read this prayer with understanding in order to grasp its true meaning. It is a dream that the day will come when the conscience of the world will be aroused, when all peoples will see that they are children of one father. That is the dream of the Jewish New Year's Day (rosheshone). Is it then not the loveliest idea of a new world and a new person?
It seems to me that all those Jews in the "Khaye-odem" besmedresh, as in all the other houses of prayer (bote-tfile), felt that the Days of Awe were also days of love and justice, of truth and humanity. The Jewish New Year's Day worship in the Semyatitsh besmedresh reflected the great moral struggle for a more beautiful, a better world. Jews prayed for the disappearance of evil in the world, for an end to the dominion of sin and malice. With much warm feeling, heartfelt words, hot tears and love for their fellow men and women, Jewish fathers and mothers simple Jews and Jewesses of Semyatitsh prayed earnestly, hoping to come before God's Judgement with clean hands and a pure heart.
I would like to go on talking about those Days of Awe in Semyatitsh. For
my own sake as well I want to recall the mood of those days. Upon ending
the morning service (shakhres), the Scroll of the Law (seyfer-toyre),
wrapped in a decorated velvet cover (a sametn mentele) and embellished with
a silver crown, was removed from the Holy Ark (orn-koydesh). At that time
I kissed the sacred scroll with eager lips. My father
carried it to the dias (bime), [50] where it was opened
with a sense of pride in its holiness; it had been given to us as a gift at
Mt. Sinai. As in childhood, I am to this day moved by the thought that
Jews have been carrying the Scroll of the Law for thousands of years as
my father did, pressing it to his heart.
I see his face before me, radiant with pride, as he read from the Tora. I had the feeling that it was his soul that was singing the Jewish New Year's Day melody (dem rosheshonedikn krie-nign), one which suggested the distant East, the Land of Israel, the aroma of palm trees. My father was not alone; he was merged with the others, with the Jewish People, a people of noble lineage dressed in silk and velvet, in white prayer-shawls, with eyes towards heaven, towards God's wonders, listening to what was inscribed in the Tora in letters of fire. I see before my eyes the picture of the blower of the ram's horn (bal-tekeye) standing on the platform (bime) wrapped in a white prayer-shawl (talis), his head held high, heavenward. Everyone feels the awful responsibility that this venerable Jew has taken upon his old gray head, the blowing of the shofar on Jewish New Year's Day will God accept his mission (shlikhes)? Are heart and soul now altogether clean and pure?
All heads are bowed, enclosed in prayer shawls, yet they seem exalted; a holy secret hovers about them and over them. The shofar-blower takes the shofar to his lips. The dread in the besmedresh and in the hearts of everyone grows thicker, the anxiety more pronounced, since the world is full of accusers, opponents of the human person. They seek to do evil and the soft, modest voice of the shofar must break through the destructive angels (malakhe-khabole) and reach the Creator of the World, so that He will listen to our prayers.
After the blowing of the shofar, the Scroll of the Law was returned to the Ark and the congregation recited the Additional Prayers (musef). I was still a boy and I stood next to my father; I felt that his heart was full of grief. I heard his voice, sincere and pleading. And my heart, like his, was full of entreaty and introspection. Individual self-examination is just like communal self-examination and is appropriate all through the year, especially on Jewish New Year's Day, the Ten Days of Repentance and the Day of Atonement, but it was only afterwards when I was grown up and understood the synthesis of Judaism and universal humanism (almentshlekhkayt), that I saw what was special in the prayers for the Jewish New Year's Day (rosheshone).
Perhaps it is thanks to the mood in the besmedresh that I was also able in later years to grasp more clearly the idea of the greatness of the New Year holiday (rosheshone) among Jews; an idea which encompasses the entire world. Every Jewish New Year's Day I think back to that time and I make comparisons. I think of Jewish students and professors who study how to split atoms and I wonder if these intellectuals, alienated from a normal Jewish life, know about Jewish particularity (bazunderkayt). Do they grasp the universal meaning of the prayers of the Days of Awe?
It seems to me that they ought to become more familiar with these prayers and also with the intimate Yiddish prayers (tkhines) of our grandmothers. From them they would learn of the hopes and longings which simple Jews and Jewesses, grown adults and small children, invested in these prayers. When you immerse yourself in these prayers you are amazed by their human beauty, of a sort which cultured peoples can but envy. Unforgettable to me are not so much the words as the mood (shtimung) which the intimate Yiddish prayers (tkhines) evoke. The Yiddish prayers of our mothers and grandmothers are Jewish and universal, human and national. I was strongly affected by them as a child, both in the besmedresh and at home where I heard my mother quietly uttering them in the dusk of departing Sabbaths and holidays.
After Jewish New Year's Day (rosheshone) there follow ten awesome days of repentance, of self-examination and self-purification, in order to stand before God on the great day, the Day of Atonement. These ten days, which begin {on the third day of Tishri} with the Fast of Gedalia (tsoym-gedalye), are hard. You fast all day and it is gloomy just yesterday on the last night of Jewish New Year's Day you wished yourself a happy new year and here you are already fasting again. As I child I thought it strange, but Father sat down with me and explained that a terrible thing had happened on that day: out of envy and hatred a Jew had killed the Jewish leader Gedalia son of Akhikam of Mizpah in Judea (Gedalye ben-akhikom fun mitspe in land yude).
My father's story gave me no rest and when I got older I started to search in books to learn more about the period of the Destruction of the First Temple. At that time there were only poor farmers in Judea and among them lived Gedalia son of Akhikam. The King of Babylon had appointed him to be in charge, and he had done all he could to make the life of the Jews an easier one. He was much loved and following his assassination a memorial day for him was declared.
Quietly, wordlessly, gravely and tremulously, the Day of Atonement (yonkiper) arrived in Semyatitsh. It was as though the world held its breath, and the earth and skies with their horizons had surrendered in fright to the oncoming evening of the awesome and holy Day of Atonement. Jews left their businesses, left their daily concerns and hastened to the besmedresh, to the synagogue (shil), to the Hasidic shtibl; they gave alms to the needy (tsdoke) and they forgave one another (men hot zikh ibergebetn).
On the day of the evening of the Day of Atonement, people went to immerse themselves in the ablutionary pool {ritualarium} (mikve). On the tables of the besmedresh there were platters in which headings (ibershriftn) were placed marking the various purposes for which money was being collected. After prayer services, everybody put in a coin. There were also platters for the Jewish National Fund (keren kayemes leyisroel), the Jewish Foundation Fund (keren hayesod) and other Zionist funds. After the last meal we all went to services together with Father. On the way we wished each other a happy new year (a gmar khsime-toyve 'a final good sealing for a happy new year'). Everyone carried holiday prayer-books (makhzoyrim) in their hands. Both inside and around, the synagogue was full of people and of light. Everyone carried a candle for his soul.
The besmedresh was full of burning memorial candles (neshome-likht). Suddenly everything became still. Everyone held their breath and the strong voice of the rabbi was heard. His fiery sermon was full of deeply meaningful thoughts on the holiest day of the Jewish year. I didn't always understand the rabbi's sermon (though he explained most clearly what the Day of Atonement signified for the Jew), but his main intent engraved itself in my memory: all resentment and friction between people must be forgotten. With an ancient melody which one generation has transmitted to the next, the cantor, in a low, trembling voice began to sing that tune that is concealed in the soul of every Jew, sealed with the seal of fugitive cellar-synagogues in Spain, "Kol nidre ."
Later years I heard many debates regarding that Day of Atonement (yonkiper) prayer. While listening to the "Kol Nidre," we are so deeply moved and so transported to higher spheres, that the words of that wonderful prayer are almost impossible to understand. What is the meaning of the solemn declaration that all vows and oaths which we make in the coming year are null and void, inoperative and worthless? What do the words mean? That our vow is not a vow and our oath no oath? Is this to say that we announce in advance that our word and our promise are good-for-nothing? It is absolutely clear to me that not a single Jew in Semyatitsh thought in such a manner. After all, Jewish life in our shtetl was rooted in the sacredness of the word.
Jewish institutions depended upon the donations promised on being given the honor of reading from the Tora in the synagogue (aliyes) or on other occasions; oaths were often made at lawsuits (din-toyres). What sense would all this have had if one could simply ignore solemn promises? I thought about all this a great deal in later years and it became clear to me that the meaning of the "Kol Nidre" lies elsewhere. It has to do with the moral battle which the individual wages within himself. There are conflicts and temptations within the person who struggles to raise himself morally, to free himself from dependency on the material world and its concerns. Here I would like to emphasize that Jewish morality in my home, as in Semyatitsh generally, was in all times bound up with the sacredness of the word, with honoring a vow (neyder), not to speak of an oath (shvue). There is an entire tractate in the Talmud, Nedorim ('Vows'), which we studied in kheyder and in the besmedresh.
I must add that vows and oaths were also important instruments in the struggle with one's own weaknesses. Nonetheless, not always does a person have the strength to fulfill all that he has undertaken, and it may then happen that he falls into a state of despair. Life has taught me that there is a great deal of good in people, and therefore they can succeed in climbing higher, but they may also at times begin to fall. Here is the significance of repentance and of the Day of Atonement: constant effort to strengthen oneself, constant readiness to battle against one's evil instincts, against the dark forces within oneself. For this reason, everyone is called on the night of the Day of Atonement (yonkiper) to pray with us even the sinners, the lawbreakers.
When I was at the Sokolov yeshiva, I heard from the Rabbi (sokolover rebe) that man's greatness lies in the fact that he can also sin. We have to remember, however, that this is but a small part of human greatness. Man's ability to find ways and means to avoid sin belongs to an even higher level of greatness. This helped me at that time to understand better the meaning of the "Kol nidre" prayer, which was sung with so much longing and entreaty, sung with such ease yet from such depths, [51]sung so beautifully and yet so solemnly and tearfully. Yes, my children and grandchildren, as well as all others who read the pages of my book, remember that prayer. It is a song of immense loneliness blended with a song of an ancient people. Thus they stood in the Semyatitsh besmedresh in silk garments, with silk prayer-belts (gartlen), in white linen robes (kitlen), and sang together with the cantor, with trembling voice, that same soul-melody imploring the great Creator of the World.
There was a brief transition from singing to weeping and shouting. On the holy night of the Day of Atonement, Heaven was entreated with bitter tears for forgiveness of sins. That night in God's world was a speechless and fearful one in Semyatitsh. When I recall those nights, it seems to me as though they held concealed the fate of the Jewish flock, the bitter fate which befell it with the coming of the darkest night in the history of the Jewish people. But no one thought of such things at the time. They stood in the synagogue, in the besmedresh, illumined by the light of the memorial candles, sanctified by their prayers and their tears, feeling guilty towards God and begging him, "Hear our voice, take pity on us."
The following morning at sunrise one was again in the synagogue and the besmedresh. With no shoes on one's feet, no food or drink, one prayed all day, crying out to the great Creator of the World to be merciful and forgive one for his sins. I confess that I feel abjectly poor and helpless in describing the Day of Atonement in Semyatitsh, the role it played in my life and in the life of our shtetl in general. Perhaps some will ask, "Didn't they resume committing the same old sins of the past year right after the Day of Atonement, right after beating their breasts in confessing their sins (geshlogn al-khet) and spending a whole day fasting and repenting?" It seems to me that this is the wrong approach.
True, right after the Days of Repentance Jews energetically returned to their old businesses, yet the Days of Awe nevertheless had an enormous moral effect on every Jew in the shtetl. Everyone, at least for a time, was morally purified through experiencing the Days of Repentance. Just as a person has to wash periodically and take care of his personal clothing, in like fashion he must always pay attention to his deeds. The ten Days of Repentance did not turn anyone into an angel, but it did help one to remain a human being (mentsh); without repentance a person is in danger of becoming bestial.
The Day of Atonement in Semyatitsh proved to me how much a person could change as a result of spiritual stock-taking. The wonderful sounds of "Kol nidre," of "Unesane toykef" and of other prayers had a great effect on people throughout the year. Every year added its bit, corrected something and deepened the thirst to be purified. Every person lives through a great deal in his life, but as far as experiences are concerned, my generation may be the richest of all. It is no less than a duty that we share what we have gone through. I have something to tell future generations. What I have to tell should have a moral effect on those who come to know the trials of my generation.
But at the same time it is equally important to me to tell my story. We know that when a person feels deeply agitated, depressed, unable to cope, and cannot drive off the melancholy (moreshkhoyre) that oppresses him, he seeks relief from a doctor. The psycho-analytic method developed by the great thinker, Sigmund Freud, is today widespread. The patient comes to the psychoanalyst, speaks freely of whatever is on his mind, and the doctor tries to determine what is disturbing the patient. The doctor assumes the role of father and protector and the patient reverts to childhood. He becomes a child again and seeks security from his newfound father. The psycho-analytic method assists the patient not only in uncovering the cause of his melancholy, but the guilty party. The psychoanalyst frees the patient of his various complexes and he becomes a different person.
I don't want to get into the question here of how scientifically corroborated the psycho-analytic method is; there are serious doubts about it and serious opponents. I merely wish to point out that there is an old Jewish psycho-analytic method, the method of repentance (tshuve), of spiritual stock-taking (khezhbm-hanefesh). The individual examines himself, analyzes his actions and thoughts, and seeks a way to free himself of his faults. However, there is a fundamental difference. Jewish tradition emphasizes primarily the conflict between the individual and his fellows, between brothers and friends. Envy (kine) causes him to sin and leads to constant temptations (shtroykhlungen). [52] Repentance liberates the individual from envy and hate, helps him become better.
Only a few days after the Day of Atonement came the evening of the
fourteenth day of Tishri, bringing to child and adult in Semyatitsh the
holiday of the Feast of Tabernacles (sukes 'Sukkot'), the holiday of double
remembrance of how our ancestors dwelled in booths when they came out of
Egypt and of the holiday of harvesting field and orchard, the joyous
holiday of the citron (esreg) and the palm branch (lulev). The climaxes of
the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) are Hoshana Raba (heshayne-rabe),
Shmini-Atseret (shminatseres), and the separate holiday of Rejoicing of the
Law (simkhes-toyre 'Simkhat Tora'), which was celebrated so joyfully in our
shtetl. It always brought cheer into every Jewish home.
Booths were put up on every street and alley. I remember very well how in the four days between the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles my father would examine the sky for clouds, and how happy he was when the sky was bright, promising a fair and rainless Feast of Tabernacles. When I visualize the zeal with which the Jews of Semyatitsh prepared for Sukkot, bought "the four kinds" (di arbo'o minim) the citron, palm branch, myrtle and willow, wonderful thoughts come to me regarding their meaning and their symbolism. The four kinds have been compared to the Jews, who are said to possess in themselves a synthesis of all these plants fruit of a lovely tree, branches of a palm tree, and willows (verbes) on the rivers. [53]
The shtetl celebrated the water-drawing festival (simkhes-beys-hashoeyvo). I eventually learned that the joyous ceremony of pouring water also had a deeper meaning. Water is a messianic symbol; it is the water of life, of help, of salvation (di yeshue). Jews in Semyatitsh also connected Sukkot with longing for the Land of Israel (ertsisroel). The symbol of the booth is authentically Jewish, signifying the art of living in two worlds and the art of creating a world for oneself as well. It does not matter if one's own world seems small and unassuming as long as one can see the sky through the branches of the roof (skhakh). The children, too, understood the symbolic and historic meanings of the booth.
Simkhes-Toyre (Hebrew: Simkhat Tora) was the highest point of Jewish
holiday cheer. It is the last day of Sukes (Sukkot), which ends
wonderfully with the celebration of the Tora. It is remarkable that this
holiday became a special folk festival among us. Not only scholars
(lomdim), but simple Jews workers, traders, craftsmen rejoiced around
the Tora. They had all absorbed the little song, "Tora
is the best merchandise" (toyre iz di beste skhoyre), with which their
mothers had rocked them to sleep in their cradles. [54]
How happy the children were to parade around the reading platform with
little flags that their parents had bought for them and on top of which had
stuck red apples with burning candles in them. I always thought my flag
was the prettiest, since my father had put the prettiest apple on it.
Dancing with the scrolls of the Law in the besmedresh went on until late at
night and I never tired watching the merriment. Every Jew, child and
adult, participated in the procession with the scrolls of the Law (hot
bakumen a hakofe).
On the following morning every Jew was called up to the Tora during the Reading of the Tora, when the various Tora-reading honors (aliyes) were sold. These formed a hierarchy: the valedictorian (khosn-toyre), [55] the reader of the lesson from the Books of the Prophets {haftoyre} (mafter), the reader of the first portion {literally 'groom of Genesis'} (khosn-breyshis), and then the Tora-callup of all the male children together (kol-haneorim). The lights of the besmedresh, which was full of radiant-faced people in their holiday best, sparkled merrily, gaily, in holiday mood.
At the procession ceremony (hakofes) it became cramped in the women's section (ezres-noshim), and the women crossed over the threshold of the men's synagogue. Their jewelry, their earrings and pearls shined in concert with their eyes. They watched their husbands and sons joyfully press the scrolls of the Law to their hearts and march and sing with them around the dias (balemer).
It was just as cheerful in other prayer-houses (botey-midroshim), including the Slonim shtibl, as it was in the "Khaye-odem" besmedresh. There was non-stop singing and dancing everywhere and, therefore, as long as my memory serves, I will remember the joyous scenes of Simkhat Tora, from the moment the doors of the Holy Ark (orn-koydesh) were opened and they began handing Scrolls of the Law from one dancing group to another.
I danced along at every procession and there were always those who sought a new melody for every turn around the platform. The next day, too, Hasidim went from house to house and were treated with food and drink everywhere. The gaiety and joy are indescribable. Our mothers experienced the joy and they themselves also felt younger and carefree. Simkhat Tora was the holiday of all the Jews of Semyatitsh. You did not have to seek joy in the shtetl, for our parents possessed the richest treasure of delight in themselves, and the key to this treasure was the holiday, which drove away every sorrow, all weekday cares and vexations.
Winter crept up on us with its freezing weather and
its snow storms, and there were days when there was danger of coming to
harm. Winter in Semyatitsh lasted long and the days and nights lingered
and were hard, until the Feast of Lights (kha'nike) [56]
arrived. The weather was mainly dry and frosty and the snow on the ground
was already frozen hard. The entire town looked as though it had been
wrapped in a great white coat. True, as I already mentioned, blizzards
sometimes caused the market day to be cancelled, thus causing anguish to
our parents, but the children did not allow anything to quell the holiday
mood which came with Hanukka. The Hanukka candles in silver and brass
candelabra (menoyres) shone through the frozen windows at night.
In the kheyder, year in and year out, just before the holiday, the history books were reopened at the story of how our ancestors in the days of the Second Temple threw off the yoke of the Syrian Greeks and cleansed the Temple of pagan elements. During Hanukka it was usual for children to be let out of kheyder early, giving more time for play. I recall my mother reading me an old Jewish legend from the Yiddish Pentateuch (tsenerene) about the heroine Judith who killed the Greek general Holofernes, saving her people and inspiring Jewish heroes to fight and win.
In Semyatitsh Hanukka was also the holiday of play. Even the most devout (frume) Jews let themselves relax for a while and play games. Like all the other Jewish children I enjoyed spinning teetotum tops (dreydlekh). [57] The top had Jewish letters and was a part of the Hanukka ritual.
When I became older I understood better the candelabra (menoyre), the most important symbol of Hanukka. Archaeological excavations which have been carried out in Israel and in other lands in the past few decades have shown the symbolic role played by the candelabra in Jewish life. At every step we encounter the image of the candelabra, handiwork of ancient artisans. The Greek rulers believed that by occupying Jerusalem and introducing icons of the Greek idols into the Temple, they would ultimately break the moral resistance of the tiny people of Judea. Their calculation was wrong.
The Temple was indeed sacred, but the people found a way to God outside it. When the candelabra in the Temple was extinguished by the brutal oppressors, candelabra were lit in homes throughout the land. The eternal light (neyrtomed) of Jewish life was not affected. The Hanukka candelabra replaced the Temple candelabra. The Hanukka candles virtually brought the Temple into the Jewish home. At the conclusion of the afternoon-and-evening prayers (minkhe-mayrev), people hurried to get home from the besmedresh in order to light the Hanukka candles. Often, guests were already waiting at home and mother was serving Hanukka dishes -- pancakes (latkes), puffs (pontshkes), blintzes (blintses) with cheese or jam filling, dumplings with roasted goose-skin bits (varenikes mit grivn), pastries and sweets, and also various beverages. On Hanukka nights the hot tea had a special taste.
In our house I felt that Hanukka was a holiday of the Jewish home. It was warm and bright. Guests visited and at table exciting stories were told and all kind of events were described. We youngsters received gifts of money (khanuke-gelt) from Mother and Father and from aunts and uncles. The warm home atmosphere robbed you of all desire to go out of doors, where cold winds raged and the frost cracked. When we grew older my appreciation of the significance of Hanukka grew as well. I was by then a member of the Zionist movement and understood that the Hanukka candles nursed the flame that the Hasmoneans had kindled in Modiin hundreds of years ago. This was the flame of Jewish national consciousness and of the fight for freedom. For us, young pioneers (khalutsim) at a Zionist training farm (hakhshore), those Galilee villagers served as an example. [58] Precisely because they were molded by their faith, in Jewish spirituality, they became forerunners for all later struggles in Jewish history.
Jewish youth in Semyatitsh turned Hanukka into an occasion for raising money for the Jewish National Fund (keren kayemes leyisroel). Literary-artistic evenings were organized in which works by Hebrew and Yiddish authors were read. Hebrew and Yiddish songs were sung and the drama circle put on plays. Thus I have also remembered the days and nights of Hanukka as a lesson left by the ancient Hasmoneans for the Hasmoneans of the present day. That is how we saw ourselves in our youth as the future fighters for a Jewish land.
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text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
The web Browser you are currently using is unsupported, and some features of this site may not work as intended. Please update to a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox or Edge to experience all features Michigan.gov has to offer.
Visiting a Prisoner
Please check the most current information on our Video Visitation page and In-Person Visiting page.
Visiting Standards - English Version
Estándares de visitas - Version Española
The prisoner must complete a Visitor List form (CAJ-334) identifying immediate family members* and not more than 10 other potential visitors. Those persons the prisoner has placed on his/her visiting list must complete a Visiting Application (CAJ-103) to request approval to visit. The Visiting Application must be submitted in advance to the facility Mailroom or Information Desk where the prisoner is currently housed to allow for review of the Application. INCLUDING A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE WHEN THE APPLICATION IS RETURNED WILL ENSURE THAT THE PROPOSED VISITOR IS PROVIDED NOTIFICATION OF HIS/HER APPROVAL OR DENIAL TO VISIT. NO VISITS WILL BE ALLOWED WITHOUT THIS APPROVAL.
*Immediate Family Member: A grandparent, parent, stepparent, spouse, mother-in-law, father-in-law, child, step-child, grandchild, sibling, half-sibling, stepbrother, and stepsister. An aunt or uncle may be included if adequate verification is provided that they served as a surrogate parent. If there is inadequate documentation in the prisoner's file to confirm this relationship, the prisoner or family member will be required to provide the documentation necessary to adequately confirm the relationship.
A proposed visitor shall be approved for placement on the prisoner's approved visitors list if all of the following criteria are met:
The proposed visitor is not subject to a current visitor restriction.
The proposed visitor is not a prisoner or a former prisoner in any jurisdiction. However, a prisoner or former prisoner who is an immediate family member may be placed on the prisoner's approved visitors list with prior approval of the Warden of the facility where the visit will occur.
The proposed visitor is not on parole or probation in any jurisdiction as a result of a felony conviction. However, a parolee or probationer who is an immediate family member may be placed on the prisoner's approved visitors list with prior approval of the Warden of the facility where the visit will occur and written approval of the supervising field agent.
The person is 18 years of age or older, an emancipated minor, or the minor child, stepchild, grandchild, sibling, step-sibling, or half-sibling of the prisoner. However, a minor child, stepchild, grandchild, sibling, step-sibling, or half-sibling of the prisoner shall not be approved for placement on the prisoner's approved visitors list under any of the following circumstances.
- The Department is notified that there is a court order prohibiting visits between the minor child and prisoner;
- The Department is notified that the parental rights of the prisoner for his/her child have been terminated;
- The prisoner has been convicted of child abuse, criminal sexual conduct or any other assaultive or violent behavior against the minor or sibling of the minor unless an exception has been granted by the Director upon request of the warden. The warden will be notified in writing if an exception is granted.
- The proposed visitor is not on another prisoner's approved visitors list except as an immediate family member. In other words, a visitor may be on the list of all prisoners who are immediate family members but only on the list of one prisoner who is not an immediate family member.
- If the proposed visitor is a Department employee, s/he may visit only as set forth in the Employee Handbook.
- If the proposed visitor is a volunteer, s/he may visit only as set forth in PD 03.02.105 - Volunteer Services and Programs.
Notwithstanding the above, the warden may deny placement of anyone on a prisoner's approved visitor list for the safety or security of the facility, protection of the public, previous violations of visiting room rules by the proposed visitor, or for other reasonable causes as determined by the warden.
Clergy may visit during the prisoner's regular visiting hours. The MDOC defines clergy as:
Leaders of a religious organization or entity such as a church, mosque, or synagogue, or persons who have been granted clergy status by a recognized religion and have ecclesiastical endorsement from a religious authority. This does not include anyone who is self-ordained or designated as clergy by a prisoner.
Members of the clergy are advised to call the facility to determine visiting hours. In special circumstances, a visit outside of regular visiting hours may be approved by the warden. This approval must be granted prior to the visit.
At the facility, the member of the clergy must present to the Information Desk officer a picture ID, such as a driver's license and proof of clergy status. That documentation varies from faith group to faith group. This may be a letter of appointment to the congregation as their pastor or a copy of an ordination certificate or clergy license. Literature such as a worship bulletin or monthly newsletter that identifies the person as clergy may also be used.
For more information, please review PD 05.03.140 - Prisoner Visitation.


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After the dismal "Freddy's Dead", Freddy seemed to be dead and buried for at least a few years. It, however, was in 1994 that Wes Craven came up with the radical idea of bringing Freddy back for another nightmare…a "New Nightmare". Gone was funny Freddy and the fresh looking 80's MTV teenagers and in was a concept so unique and groundbreaking that it just couldn't work? Or could it…
But..let us start back at the beginning. In 1984, horror director Wes Craven created "A Nightmare on Elm Street." It was acclaimed as one of the scariest movies ever made and made unknowns like Robert Englund, Johnny Depp, and Heather Langenkamp huge stars. Ten years later, Heather is living happily with her husband, Chase, and her son, Dylan. But her life has now been turned upside down because she is being stalked by a person who sounds like Nightmare villain Freddy Krueger. Chase has just been killed in a car accident after he accidentally fell asleep behind the wheel. Dylan refuses to sleep any more, and New Line Cinema has just offered her a part in "the ultimate Nightmare." But some other strange things have been happening, including earthquakes and Craven being tight-lipped about the script. The ultimate truth is that Freddy Krueger is actually an ancient demon breaking out into our world, but in order to do that, he must go through Heather. And he knows he can get out by harming those near her.
Sound convoluted? Pretentious? Overly meta? Shockingly, no. "New Nightmare" is that rare horror film in which everything works. The performances are pitch perfect, lead by a tour-de-force performance by the amazing Langenkamp. The script is full of twists and turns and the movie is quite possibly the best looking of the entire series. What starts out as a maze of mirrors becomes something much more than your typical nightmare. The film examines the role film plays on those who watch it. Something that Wes Craven's "Scream" would play out to great effect two years later. I really can't say enough about this film and homages to the original are expertly placed. It is my favorite horror film of all time and a modern classic.
Buy It Here: Wes Craven's New Nightmare


text:
New Supergroup: Generation Axe – Featuring Vai, Wylde, Malmsteen, Bettencourt, and Abasi Announce Tour
The term "supergroup" gets thrown around on a regular basis these days, however, a new tour featuring some of the greatest guitarists of all time is about to truly give the term a whole new meaning.
Introducing: Generation Axe, featuring Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt, and Tosin Abasi.
Beginning on April 5th in Seattle, Generation Axe – A Night Of Guitars is hitting the road for 26 performances in North America. Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, February 19th.
"The Generation Axe show is a unique performance of five fiercely talented guitar players coming together to create a 6-string extravaganza that is sure to amaze and delight," commented Steve Vai.
The Generation Axe fan experience will go way beyond simply gathering five guitar greats on one stage to jam. Each tour stop will include a variety of collaborations by the five players, including everyone performing together as one cohesive band with a rhythm section including Pete Griffin (Dweezil Zappa, Stanley Clarke, Edgar Winter) on bass and Nick Marinovich (Yngwie Malmsteen) on keys. Vai, Wylde, Malmsteen, Bettencourt and Abasi will perform songs from their various catalogs and join forces on some well-known songs (as well as probably a few unexpected, unearthed gems).
Making this rare tour experience even more special, Generation Axe VIP packages will be offered, giving fans access to these guitars masters and exclusive one-of-a-kind memorabilia. A front row package (including a meet & greet), a meet & greet package, and a VIP tour package will be available. For more information, visit www.generationaxe.com.
About the Generation Axe Members
While many artists fit easily into a single category, Steve Vai remains unclassifiable. Vai is a virtuoso guitarist, visionary composer, and consummate audio producer who sculpts musical sound with infinite creativity and technical mastery. He is one of the most in-demand, versatile, eloquent and soulful guitarists in the business. The GRAMMY Award-winner has sold over 15 million albums and toured the world as a solo artist, a member of G3, and with Frank Zappa, Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake. Vai launched his successful solo career with the release of Flex-Able in 1984 and has written, produced, and engineered all of his solo albums. He has appeared as a guest artist on more than 40 albums and created music for blockbuster films, best-selling video games, national sports franchises, and corporate brand initiatives. Vai has earned honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music and Musicians Institute. For more info, visit: www.vai.com
GRAMMY Award-winner Zakk Wylde's legendary career includes a lengthy tenure with Ozzy Osbourne in which Wylde co-wrote and recorded several albums, including the multi-platinum No More Tears, Osbourne's largest selling solo album featuring the classic hit single, "Mama, I'm Coming Home" and the bulk of the double platinum 2002 set, Ozzmosis. With Osbourne, Wylde has played on countless world tours and television appearances, with his signature bullseye Les Paul in tow. Wylde has his mitts imprinted on Hollywood's Rock Walk of Fame; guest-starred alongside Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston in the movie "Rockstar"; and even momentarily joined Axl, Slash and Duff in Guns N' Roses. But nothing offers the pure expression of Zakk Wylde's animalistic "id" like Black Label Society, the stomping, heavy, bluesy, recklessly unhinged hard-rock-metal quartet who are quick to rip up a solo as to dip into a piano-fueled anthemic ballad. For more info, visit: www.zakkwylde.com
When Yngwie J. Malmsteen hit the scene in the early 80s, he turned the entire guitar world upside down; never before was guitar playing like his ever heard. Drawing inspiration from his love for Baroque and Romantic classical music, Malmsteen employs classical violin techniques such as four and five octave arpeggios, pedal notes, and harmonic minor, diminished and Phrygian scales, flawlessly delivered at mind-boggling levels of speed and clarity. In doing so, he has singlehandedly created a brand new style of guitar playing and composing that is still derived from today. In addition to having written and produced 35+ neoclassical rock albums, Malmsteen composed and orchestrated the "Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra," which he recorded with the prestigious Czech Philharmonic in Prague, conducted by Yoel Levy of Atlanta Symphony fame. Malmsteen subsequently performed the piece live with the the New Japan Philharmonic and the Taipei Symphony, among others. Malmsteen has received numerous Grammy nominations, hundreds of magazine covers, dozens of Reader's Poll and Composer of the Year Awards, a plaque on the Rock Walk of Fame, signature model guitars, amps, pickups, strings, picks, pedals, microphones, and more. TIME Magazine placed him as one of the top ten guitarists of all time. Some 35 years and 25 million+ album sales later, Yngwie shows no signs of slowing down, with his brand new record World on Fire due for release in April 2016. For more info, visit: www.yngwiemalmsteen.com
Guitar virtuoso, singer-songwriter, and record producer, Nuno Bettencourt rose to international prominence as a guitar player with the GRAMMY-nominated, Boston-area band EXTREME, one of the most successful rock acts of the early to mid 1990s selling over 10 million records worldwide. Musically, EXTREME is dominated by Bettencourt's blistering guitar riffs, often with funky, syncopated timing, and incendiary, high-speed rock/metal solos. Bettencourt penned the acoustic ballad "More Than Words" that went to #1 on the Billboard charts and "Hole Hearted" that reached #4. He has released multiple solo albums as well as with bands he founded including Mourning Widows Population 1, Dramagods and Satellite Party. Bettencourt has written, produced and performed with many legendary artists including Rihanna, Steven Tyler, Paul McCartney, Janet Jackson and many others. For more info, visit: www.nunobettencourt.com
Oluwatosin Ayoyinka Olumide Abasi, better known as Tosin Abasi, is a Nigerian American guitarist known as the guitar player and founder of the instrumental progressive metal band, Animals as Leaders. Abasi's compositions of intricate music have garnered critical acclaim in a few short years. Abasi is part of the breed of new contemporary players who are raising the bar on the concept of electric guitar virtuosity. His approach to the guitar stems from a passion for advanced techniques and harmony. Using 7-, 8-, and 9-string guitars have allowed Abasi to create a highly unique and individual sound. For more info, visit: www.facebook.com/animalsasleaders
Generation Axe – A Night Of Guitars is produced by Copeland International Arts and is booked by CAA.
For more information: www.generationaxe.com.
April 5, 2016 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
April 6, 2016 – Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
April 8, 2016 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
April 9, 2016 – Las Vegas, NV – The Joint
April 10, 2016 – San Diego, CA – Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay
April 11, 2016 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
April 13, 2016 – Denver, CO – Paramount Theatre
April 15, 2016 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theatre
April 16, 2016 – Salina, KS – The Stiefel Theatre
April 17, 2016 – Dallas, TX – Bomb Factory
April 18, 2016 – Houston, TX – Revention Music Center
April 20, 2016 – Jacksonville, FL – Florida Theatre
April 21, 2016 – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live
April 23, 2016 – Wilmington, NC – Cape Fear Community College
April 24, 2016 – Washington, DC – Warner Theatre
April 25, 2016 – Cincinnati, OH – Taft Theatre
April 26, 2016 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre
April 27, 2016 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
April 29, 2016 – Chicago, IL – Copernicus Center
May 1, 2016 – Madison, WI – Orpheum Theatre
May 2, 2016 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
May 4, 2016 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
May 5, 2016 – Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theater
May 6, 2016 – Westbury, NY – Theatre at Westbury
May 7, 2016 – Hampton Beach, NH – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
May 8, 2016 – Providence, RI – Providence Performing Arts Center
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text:
Czesław Miłosz
Czesław Miłosz (30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish poet and essayist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980.
[edit]- Przysięgam, nie ma we mnie czarodziejstwa słów.
Mówię do ciebie milcząc, jak obłok czy drzewo.
- Every poet depends upon generations who wrote in his native tongue; he inherits styles and forms elaborated by those who lived before him. At the same time, though, he feels that those old means of expression are not adequate to his own experience.
- Nobel lecture (8 December 1980)
- What is this enigmatic impulse that does not allow one to settle down in the achieved, the finished? I think it is a quest for reality.
- Nobel lecture (8 December 1980)
- Only if we assume that a poet constantly strives to liberate himself from borrowed styles in search for reality, is he dangerous. In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot. And, alas, a temptation to pronounce it, similar to an acute itching, becomes an obsession which doesn't allow one to think of anything else. That is why a poet chooses internal or external exile. It is not certain, however, that he is motivated exclusively by his concern with actuality. He may also desire to free himself from it and elsewhere, in other countries, on other shores, to recover, at least for short moments, his true vocation — which is to contemplate Being.
- Nobel lecture (8 December 1980)
- During the thirty years I have spent abroad I have felt I was more privileged than my Western colleagues, whether writers or teachers of literature, for events both recent and long past took in my mind a sharply delineated, precise form. Western audiences confronted with poems or novels written in Poland, Czechoslovakia or Hungary, or with films produced there, possibly intuit a similarly sharpened consciousness, in a constant struggle against limitations imposed by censorship. Memory thus is our force, it protects us against a speech entwining upon itself like the ivy when it does not find a support on a tree or a wall.
- Nobel lecture (8 December 1980)
- It would be more decorous not to live. To live is not decorous,
Says he who after many years
Returned to the city of his youth. There was no one left
Of those who once walked these streets
And now they had nothing, except his eyes.
Stumbling, he walked and looked, instead of them,
On the light they had loved, on the lilacs again in bloom.- "City of My Youth" (1984)
- Masculinity and femininity, elapsed, met in him
And every shame, every grief, every love.
If ever we accede to enlightenment,
He thought, it is in one compassionate moment
When what separated them from me vanishes
And a shower of drops from a bunch of lilacs
Pours on my face, and hers, and his, at the same time.- "City of My Youth" (1984)
- When I die, I will see the lining of the world.
The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset.- "Meaning" (1991)
- — And if there is no lining to the world?
If a thrush on a branch is not a sign,
But just a thrush on the branch? If night and day
Make no sense following each other?- "Meaning" (1991)
- — Even if that is so, there will remain
A word wakened by lips that perish,
A tireless messenger who runs and runs
Through interstellar fields, through the revolving galaxies,
And calls out, protests, screams.- "Meaning" (1991)
- Evil grows and bears fruit, which is understandable, because it has logic and probability on its side and also, of course, strength. The resistance of tiny kernels of good, to which no one grants the power of causing far-reaching consequences, is entirely mysterious, however. Such seeming nothingness not only lasts but contains within itself enormous energy which is revealed gradually.
- "If Only This Could Be Said" To Begin Where I Am: Selected Essays by Czesŀaw Miŀosz (2001) edited and translated by Bogdana Carpenter and Madeline G. Levine
- On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
- And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels' trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.- "A Song On the End of the World"
- Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
No other end of the world will there be,
No other end of the world will there be.- "A Song On the End of the World"
- We were permitted to shriek in the tongue of dwarfs and demons
But pure and generous words were forbidden
Under so stiff a penalty that whoever dared to pronounce one
Considered himself as a lost man.- "A Task"
- It's true that what is morbid is highly valued today,
and so you may think that I am only joking
or that I've devised just one more means
of praising Art with the help of irony.- "Ars Poetica?"
There was a time when only wise books were read
helping us to bear our pain and misery.
This, after all, is not quite the same
as leafing through a thousand works fresh from psychiatric clinics.And yet the world is different from what it seems to be
and we are other than how we see ourselves in our ravings.- "Ars Poetica?"
- The purpose of poetry is to remind us
how difficult it is to remain just one person,
for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors,
and invisible guests come in and out at will.- "Ars Poetica?"
- What I'm saying here is not, I agree, poetry,
as poems should be written rarely and reluctantly,
under unbearable duress and only with the hope
that good spirits, not evil ones, choose us for their instrument.- "Ars Poetica?"
All was taken away from you: white dresses,
wings, even existence.
Yet I believe you,
messengers.There, where the world is turned inside out,
a heavy fabric embroidered with stars and beasts,
you stroll, inspecting the trustworthy seams.- "On Angels"
- They say somebody has invented you
but to me this does not sound convincing
for humans invented themselves as well.- "On Angels"
- I have heard that voice many a time when asleep
and, what is strange, I understood more or less
an order or an appeal in an unearthly tongue:
- day draws near
another one
do what you can.
- "On Angels"
- day draws near
- All my life to pretend this world of theirs is mine
And to know such pretending is disgraceful.
But what can I do? Suppose I suddenly screamed
And started to prophesy. No one would hear me.
Their screens and microphones are not for that.- "Not Mine"
Three Winters (1936)
[edit]- I have no wisdom, no skills, and no faith
but I received strength, it tears the world apart.
I shall break, a heavy wave, against its shores
and a young wave will cover my trace.- "Hymn" (1935), trans. by Czesŀaw Miŀosz
Rescue (1945)
[edit]- Only when two times, two forms are drawn
Together and their legibility
Disturbed, do you see that immortality
Is not very different from the present
And is for its sake. You pick a fragment
Of grenade which pierced the body of a song
On Daphnis and Chloe.- "A Book in the Ruins" (1941), trans. Renata Gorczynski and Robert Hass
- — How is it, Chloe, that your pretty skirt
Is torn so badly by the winds that hurt
Real people, you who, in eternity, sing
The hours, sun in your hair appearing
And disappearing? How is that your breasts
Are pierced by shrapnel, and the oak groves burn,
While you, charmed, caring not at all, turn
To run through forests of machinery and concrete
And haunt us with the echoes of your feet?- "A Book in the Ruins" (1941)
Someone will read as moral
That the people of Rome or Warsaw
Haggle, laugh, make love
As they pass by martyrs' pyres.
Someone else will read
Of the passing of things human,
Of the oblivion
Born before the flames have died.But that day I thought only
Of the loneliness of the dying,
Of how, when Giordano
Climbed to his burning
There were no words
In any human tongue
To be left for mankind,
Mankind who live on.
- Those dying here, the lonely
Forgotten by the world,
Our tongue becomes for them
The language of an ancient planet.
Until, when all is legend
And many years have passed,
On a great Campo di Fiori
Rage will kindle at a poet's word.- "Campo dei Fiori" (1943), trans. Louis Iribarne and David Brooks
- Love means to look at yourself
The way one looks at distant things
For you are only one thing among many.
And whoever sees that way heals his heart,
Without knowing it, from various ills —
A bird and a tree say to him: Friend.- "The World": Love (1943), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz
- I will neither resurrect the past nor return.
Sleep, Romeo, Juliet, on your headrest of stone feathers.
I won't raise your bound hands from the ashes.
Let the cat visit the deserted cathedrals,
its pupil flashing on the altars. Let an owl
nest on the dead ogive.- "Farewell" (1945), trans. Renata Gorczynski and Robert Hass
From life, from the apple cut by the flaming knife,
what grain will be saved?My son, believe me, nothing remains,
Only adult toil,
the furrow of fate in the palm.
Only toil,
Nothing more.- "Farewell" (1945)
- How can I live in this country
Where the foot knocks against
The unburied bones of kin?
I hear voices, see smiles. I cannot
Write anything; five hands
Seize my pen and order me to write
The story of their lives and deaths.
Was I born to become
a ritual mourner?
I want to sing of festivities,
The greenwood into which Shakespeare
Often took me. Leave
To poets a moment of happiness,
Otherwise your world will perish.- "In Warsaw" (1945), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz, Robert Hass and Madeline Levine
- They used to pour millet on graves or poppy seeds
To feed the dead who would come disguised as birds.
I put this book here for you, who once lived
So that you should visit us no more.- "Dedication" (1945), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz
The Captive Mind (1953)
[edit]- As translated by Jane Zielonko (1990) Vintage ISBN 0-679-72856-2
- It isn't pleasant to surrender to the hegemony of a nation which is still wild and primitive, and to concede the absolute superiority of its customs and institutions, science and technology, literature and art. Must one sacrifice so much in the name of the unity of mankind?
- "The Pill of Murti-Bing" (1951), trans. Jane Zielonko
- I have known many Christians — Poles, Frenchman, Spaniards — who were strict Stalinists in the field of politics but who retained certain inner reservations, believing God would make corrections once the bloody sentences of the all-mighties of History were carried out. They pushed their reasoning rather far. They argue that history develops according to immutable laws that exist by the will of God; one of these laws is the class struggle; the twentieth century marks the victory of the proletariat, which is led in its struggle by the Communist Party; Stalin, the leader of the Communist Party, fulfills the law of history or in other words acts by the will of God, therefore one must obey him. Mankind can be renewed only on the Russian pattern; that is why no Christian can oppose the one — cruel, it is true — idea which will create a new kind of man over the entire planet. Such reasoning is often used by clerics who are party tools. "Christ is a new man. The new man is a Soviet man. Therefore Christ is a Soviet man!" said Justinian Marina, the Rumanian patriarch.
- Never has there been a close study of how necessary to a man are the experiences which we clumsily call aesthetic. Such experiences are associated with works of art for only an insignificant number of individuals. The majority find pleasure of an aesthetic nature in the mere fact of their existence within the stream of life. In the cities, the eye meets colorful store displays, the diversity of human types. Looking at passers-by, one can guess from their faces the story of their lives. This movement of the imagination when a man is walking through a crowd has an erotic tinge; his emotions are very close to physiological sensations.
- What is the significance of the lives of the people he passes, of the senseless bustle, the laughter, the pursuit of money, the stupid animal diversions? By using a little intelligence he can easily classify the passers-by according to type; he can guess their social status, their habits and their preoccupations. A fleeting moment reveals their childhood, manhood, and old age, and then they vanish. A purely physiological study of one particular passer-by in preference to another is meaningless. If one penetrates into the minds of these people, one discovers utter nonsense. They are totally unaware of the fact that nothing is their own, that everything is part of their historical formation — their occupations, their clothes, their gestures and expressions, their beliefs and ideas. They are the force of inertia personified, victims of the delusion that each individual exists as a self. If at least these were souls, as the Church taught, or the monads of Leibnitz! But these beliefs have perished. What remains is an aversion to an atomized vision of life, to the mentality that isolates every phenomenon, such as eating, drinking, dressing, earning money, fornicating. And what is there beyond these things? Should such a state of affairs continue? Why should it continue? Such questions are almost synonymous with what is known as hatred of the bourgeoisie.
- As long as a society's best minds were occupied by theological questions, it was possible to speak of a given religion as the way of thinking of the whole social organism. All the matters which most actively concerned the people were referred to it and discussed in its terms. But that belongs to a dying era. We have come by easy stages to a lack of a common system of thought that could unite the peasant cutting his hay, the student poring over formal logic, and the mechanic working in an automobile factory. Out of this lack arises the painful sense of detachment or abstraction that oppresses the "creators of culture."
- Vulgarized knowledge characteristically gives birth to a feeling that everything is understandable and explained. It is like a system of bridges built over chasms. One can travel boldly ahead over these bridges, ignoring the chasms. It is forbidden to look down into them; but that, alas, does not alter the fact that they exist.
- Undoubtedly, one comes closer to the truth when one sees history as the expression of the class struggle rather than a series of private quarrels among kings and nobles. But precisely because such an analysis of history comes closer to the truth, it is more dangerous. It gives the illusion of full knowledge; it supplies answers to all questions, answers which merely run around in a circle repeating a few formulas.
- The pressure of an all-powerful totalitarian state creates an emotional tension in its citizens that determines their acts. When people are divided into "loyalists" and "criminals" a premium is placed on every type of conformist, coward, and hireling; whereas among the "criminals" one finds a singularly high percentage of people who are direct, sincere, and true to themselves.
- The masses in highly industrialized countries like England, the United States, or France are largely de-Christianized. Technology, and the way of life it produces, undermines Christianity far more effectively than do violent measures.
- It is impossible to communicate to people who have not experienced it the undefinable menace of total rationalism.
- Whoever saw, as many did, a whole city reduced to rubble — kilometers of streets on which there remained no trace of life, not even a cat, not even a homeless dog — emerged with a rather ironic attitude toward descriptions of the hell of the big city by contemporary poets, descriptions of the hell in their own souls. A real "wasteland" is much more terrible than any imaginary one. Whoever has not dwelt in the midst of horror and dread cannot know how strongly a witness and participant protests against himself, against his own neglect and egoism. Destruction and suffering are the school of social thought.
- Human material seems to have one major defect: it does not like to be considered merely as human material. It finds it hard to endure the feeling that it must resign itself to passive acceptance of changes introduced from above.
Daylight (1953)
[edit]- Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth.
Do not follow those who lie in contempt of reality.Let your lie be even more logical than the truth itself,
So the weary travelers may find repose in the lie.- "Child of Europe" (1946), trans. Jan Darowski
He who invokes history is always secure.
The dead will not rise to witness against him.You can accuse them of any deeds you like.
Their reply will always be silence.Their empty faces swim out of the deep dark.
You can fill them with any features desired.Proud of dominion over people long vanished,
Change the past into your own, better likeness.- "Child of Europe" (1946)
- He doesn't know birds live
In another time than man.
He doesn't know a tree lives
In another time than birds
And will grow slowly
Upward in a gray column
Thinking with its roots
Of the silver of underworld kingdoms.- "Birth" (1947), trans. Peter Dale Scott
- Wherever he steps, there always
Endures traced in sand
A large-toed footprint
Which clamors to be tried out
By his childish foot arriving
From the virgin forests.- "Birth" (1947)
- For a country without a past is nothing, a word
That, hardly spoken, loses its meaning,
A perishable wall destroyed by flame,
An echo of animal emotions.- "A Legend" (1949), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz and Robert Hass
King Popeil and Other Poems (1962)
[edit]- A man should not love the moon.
An ax should not lose weight in his hand.
His garden should smell of rotting apples
And grow a fair amount of nettles.- "Should, Should Not" (1961), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz
Long into the night we were walking on the Piazza del Duomo.
He: That I was too politicized.
And I answered him more or less as follows:If you have a nail in your shoe, what then?
Do you love that nail? Same with me.
I am for the moon amid the vineyards
When you see high up the snow on the Alps.- "In Milan" (1955), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz and Robert Hass
Bobo's Metamorphosis (1965)
[edit]- We are a poor people, much afflicted.
We camped under various stars,
Where you dip water with a cup from a muddy river
And slice your bread with a pocketknife.
This is a place accepted, not chosen.- "It Was Winter" (1964), trans. Czesław Miłosz, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky and Renata Gorczynski
- And here I am walking the eternal earth.
Tiny, leaning on a stick.
I pass a volcanic park, lie down at a spring,
Not knowing how to express what is always and everywhere:
The earth I cling to is so solid
Under my breast and belly that I feel grateful
For every pebble, and I don't know whether
It is my pulse or the earth's that I hear,
When the hems of invisible silk vestments pass over me,
Hands, wherever they have been, touch my arm,
Or small laughter, once, long ago over wine,
With lanterns in the magnolias, for my house is huge.- "It Was Winter" (1964), trans. Czesław Miłosz, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky and Renata Gorczynski
- Consciousness even in my sleep changes primary colors.
The features of my face melt like a wax doll in the fire.
And who can consent to see in the mirror the mere face of man?- "Rivers Grow Small" (1963), trans. Czesław Miłosz
- I liked beaches, swimming pools, and clinics
for there they were the bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.
I pitied them and myself, but this will not protect me.
The word and the thought are over.- "They Will Place There Telescreens" (1964), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz
- And the city stood in its brightness when years later I returned,
My face covered with a coat though now no one was left
Of those who could have remembered my debts never paid,
My shames not eternal, base deeds to be forgiven.
And the city stood in its brightness when years later I returned.- "And the City Stood in Its Brightness" (1963), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Peter Dale Scott
City Without a Name (1969)
[edit]- I am only a man: I need visible signs.
I tire easily, building the stairway of abstraction.
Many a time I asked, you know it well, that the statue in church
lift its hand, only once, just once, for me.
But I understand that signs must be human,
therefore call one man, anyone on earth,
not me — after all I have some decency —
and allow me, when I look at him, to marvel at you.- "Veni Creator" (1961), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Pinsky
You are a tongue of the debased,
of the unreasonable, hating themselves
even more than they hate other nations,
a tongue of informers,
a tongue of the confused,
ill with their own innocence.But without you, who am I?
Only a scholar in a distant country,
a success, without fears and humiliations.
Yes, who am I without you?
Just a philosopher, like everyone else.- "My Faithful Mother Tongue" (1968), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz and Robert Pinsky
Uncollected Poems (1954-1969)
[edit]- I was left behind with the immensity of existing things. A sponge, suffering because it cannot saturate itself; a river, suffering because reflections of clouds and trees are not clouds and trees.
- "Esse" (1954), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Pinsky
Greece had to lose, her pure consciousness
had to make our agony only more acute.We needed God loving us in our weakness
and not in the glory of beatitude.- "To Raja Rao" (1969) (A poem written in English)
From the Rising of the Sun (1974)
[edit]- Leaves glowing in the sun, zealous hum of bumblebees,
From afar, from somewhere beyond the river, echoes of lingering voices
And the unhurried sounds of a hammer gave joy not only to me.
Before the five senses were opened, and earlier than any beginning
They waited, ready, for all those who would call themselves mortals,
So that they might praise, as I do, life, that is, happiness.- "An Hour" (1972), trans. Czesŀaw Miłosz and Lillian Vallee
- Tell me, as you would in the middle of the night
When we face only night, the ticking of a watch,
the whistle of an express train, tell me
Whether you really think that this world
Is your home? That your internal planet
That revolves, red-hot, propelled by the current
Of your warm blood, is really in harmony
With what surrounds you? Probably you know very well
The bitter protest, every day, every hour,
The scream that wells up, stifled by a smile,
The feeling of a prisoner who touches a wall
And knows that beyond it valleys spread,
Oaks stand in summer splendor, a jay flies
And a kingfisher changes a river to a marvel.- "An Appeal" (1954), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass
- And space, what it is like? Is it mechanical,
Newtonian? A frozen prison?
Or the lofty space of Einstein, the relation
Between movement and movement? No reason to pretend
I know. I don't know, and if I did,
Still my imagination is a thousand years old.- " An Appeal" (1954)
Hymn of the Pearl (1981)
[edit]- Now I am not ashamed of my defeat.
One murky island with its barking seals
Or a parched desert is enough
To make us say: yes, oui, si.- "A Magic Mountain" (1975), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Lillian Vallee
- If I am all mankind, are they themselves without me?
- "Study of Loneliness" (1975), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Lillian Vallee
- The death of a man is like the fall of a mighty nation
That had valiant armies, captains, and prophets,
And wealthy ports and ships all over the seas.- "The Fall" (1975), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Lillian Vallee
- When I curse Fate, it's not me, but the earth in me.
- "Notes" (1978), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Lillian Vallee
- A weak human mercy walks in the corridors of hospitals and is like a half-thawed winter.
- "Before Majesty" (1978), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass
- Earth, what have I to do with thee?
With your meadows where dumb beasts
Grazed before the deluge without lifting their heads?
What have I to do with your implacable births?
So why this gracious melancholia?
Is it because anger is no use?- "A Portal" (1976), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass
- Under various names, I have praised only you, rivers!
You are milk and honey and love and death and dance.
From a spring in hidden grottoes, seeping from mossy rocks,
Where a goddess pours live water from a pitcher,
At clear streams in the meadow, where rills murmur underground,
Your race and my race begin, and amazement, and quick passage.- "Rivers" (1980), trans. Renata Gorczynski and Robert Hass
- We go down with the bells ringing in all the sunken cities.
Forgotten, we are greeted by the embassies of the dead,
While your endless flowing carries us on and on;
And neither is nor was. The moment only, eternal.- "Rivers" (1980), trans. Renata Gorczynski and Robert Hass
Unattainable Earth (1986)
[edit]- Our memory is childish and it saves only what we need.
- "Yellow Bicycle," trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass
- I still think too much about the mothers
And ask what is man born of woman.
He curls himself up and protects his head
While he is kicked by heavy boots; on fire and running,
He burns with bright flame; a bulldozer sweeps him into a clay pit.
Her child. Embracing a teddy bear. Conceived in ecstasy.- "Preparation," trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass
- I think that I am here, on this earth,
To present a report on it, but to whom I don't know.
As if I were sent so that whatever takes place
Has meaning because it changes into memory.- "Consciousness," trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass
New Poems (1985-1987)
[edit]- How it should be in Heaven I know, for I was there.
By its river. Listening to its birds.
In its season: in summer, shortly after sunrise.
I would get up and run to my thousand works
And the garden was superterrestrial, owned by imagination.- "How It Should Be in Heaven" (1986), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz and Robert Hass
- But where is our, dear to us, mortality?
Where is time that both destroys and saves us?
This is too difficult for me. Peace eternal
Could have no mornings and no evenings,
Such a deficiency speaks against it.- "How It Should Be in Heaven" (1986), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz and Robert Hass
- I knew that I would speak in the language of the vanquished
No more durable than old customs, family rituals,
Christmas tinsel, and once a year the hilarity of carols.- "1945" (1985), trans. Czesław Miłosz and Robert Hass
Quotes about
[edit]- I read the beautiful writing of Milosz when he says, especially his magnificent essays, that if he would not write in Polish, he wouldn't be who he is. And I think he kept his language as a way of keeping his Polish soul and his European soul and the World War II soul.
- Marjorie Agosín Interview (2004)
- [F]or us - writers and artists bringing original expression to politics and social issues at the end of this century where neither socialism nor capitalism has achieved justice and human fulfilment for all - Czeslaw Milosz has the rubric: "Ill at ease in the tyranny, ill at ease in the republic/In the one I longed for freedom, in the other for the end of corruption."
- Nadine Gordimer "When Art Meets Politics" (1999)
External links
[edit]- Brief profile at the official Nobel Prize website
- Brief biography of Czesław Miłosz
- Brief biography at Poets.org
- "Czesław Miłosz memorial" San Francisco Chronicle
- "Nobel poet Czesław Miłosz of Poland and Berkeley, one of the icons of the Solidarity movement, dies" UC Berkeley Press Release
- "Nobel laureate poet Miłosz dies" BBC News
- "Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz dies" CBC News
- Memorials at The Agonist
- Interview with Czesław Miłosz in Georgia Review
- Miłosz poems in English and in Polish at the Internet Poetry Archive
- Miłosz reading his poems in English at UC Berkeley, (3 February 2000) (Realplayer audio file)
- Miłosz reading his poems in English at UC Berkeley (4 April 1983) (Realplayer audio file)
- Biography at Culture.pl
- 1911 births
- 2004 deaths
- Antinatalists
- Diplomats of Poland
- Essayists from the United States
- Nobel laureates in Literature
- Poets from the United States
- Essayists from Poland
- Poets from Poland
- Catholics from the United States
- Translators from the United States
- Political authors from the United States
- Immigrants to the United States
- Nobel laureates from Poland