Dan Pagis’ Bilingual Poem ‘Ein Leben’ – An Ophthalmologic Poetics of German–Hebrew Eye Contact

Abstract

Abstract Hebrew–German homophonic translation as a poetic writing technique is a still largely unknown phenomenon in German–Hebrew Studies. In my research dedicated to mapping the diversity of multilingual modalities in modern German and Hebrew literature, I am particularly interested in German–Hebrew homophony. Thus, in my paper, I analyse German–Hebrew homophony in Pagis’ Hebrew poems ‘Ein Leben’ and ‘Written in Pencil in a Sealed Railway-Car’ (כתוב בעפרון בקרון החתום), while showing the deep impression that Ernst Jandl’s avant-garde poetry (‘oberflächenübersetzung’) has left upon Pagis’ oeuvre. In light of my homophonic analysis, I offer access to a hitherto unnoticed deep layer of German–Hebrew dialogue in Pagis’ poetry, which offers novel interpretations that are unique in the corpus of German-Jewish and Hebrew literature.