The Sonnets of Lea Goldberg

Abstract

This article examines the sonnets of Lea Goldberg. In contrast to the idea of Modernity, which is associated with the attempt to remove the chains of tradition and the past and to forget them entirely, Goldberg confronted the history of traditional structures of poetry precisely at the time of the Second World War, composing sixty-six sonnets, six elegies, eleven terzinas (terza rima), and in complete structural contrast, but with accordance with a new cultural-historical awareness, also many folk songs. Her choice of an accepted and routine aesthetic style was not simply an aesthetic reaction, or act of excessive admiration for the ancient, nor was it a paradoxical attempt toward an independent expression, but, instead, a persistent and ambitious choice, filled with the sense of historical responsibility. Lea Goldberg's first acquaintance with the sonnet was probably with the Russian and the German versions. Through German and Russian translations, she was surely acquainted with the Italian, as well as with the French and English sonnets. She immersed herself in the work of Emmanuel Ha-Romi, and undoubtedly knew as well the Hebrew sonnets of Tchernichovsky, Shteinberg, Fichman, Shalom, and Karni. Surely, Lea Goldberg does not treat her sonnets in the most conservative traditional manner, and at a second and a third glance, it is surprising to recognize the measure of liberties taken by her. Petrarchan and Shakespearian pangs of love and romantic themes are the subject of most of the sonnets, but several of them are directly concerned with the historical experience of the war, and they are, I would like to suggest, the exception that proves the rule. Significance: On the occasion of the publication of the first complete collection of Goldberg's published and unpublished sonnets, including manuscript versions and translations. The article includes a first general detailed description of Goldberg's use of the genre and a detailed close reading analysis of a sonnet.