Tchernichovsky, Saul 1875-1943

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TCHERNICHOVSKY, Saul 1875-1943

PERSONAL: Born c. 1875, in Mikhailovka, Russia; died October 14, 1943, in Jerusalem, Israel. Education: Attended universities in Heidelberg, Germany, and Lausanne, Switzerland; graduated 1905.

CAREER: Poet, translator, and physician.

WRITINGS:

Hezyonot ve-Manginot Alef (title means "Melodies and Liturgy I"), Tushia, 1898.

Hezyonot ve-Manginot Beitu (title means "Melodies and Liturgy II,"), Tushia, 1898.

UShirim le-Yaldei Israel (title means "Poems for the Children of Israel"), Hashiloah (Odessa), 1907.

Shirim, Moriyah (Odessa), 1913-1914.

Mahberet ha-sonetot (sonnets), Devir (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1921-1922.

Sipurim (title means "Stories"), Devir (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1921-1922.

Sefer ha-idiliot (title means "Idylls"), Moriah (Berlin, Germany), 1922, reprinted, Devir (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1943.

He-Halil: shirim li yeladim (title means "The Flute"), Devir (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1923.

Shirim hadashim (title means "New Poems"), A.Y. Shtibel (Leipzig, German), 1923-1924.

Bar-Kochva (play), Stybel, 1924.

Imanu'el ha-Romi: Monografyah, Eshkol (Berlin, Germany), 1924-1925.

Col Kitvei (collected works), ten volumes, Va'ad hayovel, 1929-1932.

Sefer Ha-Baladot (title means "Ballads"), Omanut, 1930.

Goren: shirim nivharim le-yalde Yi'sra'el: le-yovel hashishim shel ha-meshorer, Stybel (Tel Aviv, Israel), [1935-1936].

The Thresing Floor (for children), Stybel, 1936.

Shirei Tchernichovsky Le-Ehav ha-Tzeriim (title means "Poems by Shaul Tchernichovsky for His Young Brothers") (for children), Riga, 1936.

Col Shirei (collected poems), Schocken, 1937.

Shirim, Keren Yi'sra'el Mats (New York, NY), 1937.

Re'i, adamah: shirim, Shoken (Jerusalem, Israel), 1940.

Ho Adamah (title means "You See"), Schocken, 1940.

Sheloshim u-sheloshah sipurim (title means "Thirty-Three Stories"), (Jerusalem, Israel), 1941.

Asher Haya ve-Lo Haya (title means "That Which Never Was") (children's), Yavne, 1942.

Shirim (poems), Hayovel, 1943.

Shire ha-arets, Shoken (Jerusalem, Israel), 1946-1947.

Shirim, Devir (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1966.

Saul Tschernichowsky: Poet of Revolt, translations by Sholom J. Kahn and others, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1968.

Shaul Tschernichovsky, translated by David Kuselewitz, Eked (Tel Avid, Israel), 1978.

Kol kitve (collected works), 'Am 'oved (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1990-1995.

Author's poems have been published in numerous languages, including Arabic, Czech, Dutch, English, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

translator

Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven (Kalba dishemaya), Yedidi (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1939.

Shirim min ha-epos ha-Serbiu (Serbian poetry), Shoken (Jerusalem, Israel), 1946.

Homer, Iliad and Odyssey (Ili'adah : Odiseyah), Shoken (Jerusalem, Israel), 1954.

Plato, ha-Mishteh, Shoken (Tel Aviv, Israel), 1946.

(With Y. E. Heler and A. Simon) Plato, Sokrates u-mishnato/mi-tokh kitve Aplaton, Bet ha-sefer hare'alil ha-'Ivri (Hefah, Israel), 1953-1954.

SIDELIGHTS: Considered one of the most important poets of the 1890s "Renaissance Generation" of Hebrew writers in Odessa, Saul Tchernichovsky grew up in a home that valued education. As a youth he was exposed to the philosophies of Zionism and the intellectual movement in Europe known as the Jewish Enlightenment. At the age of fourteen he went to Odessa to study and became interested in languages, including Latin, English, German, French, and Greek. These studies led to his later work as a translator of numerous works into Hebrew, including William Shakespeare's Macbeth and Homer's Odyssey. Tchernichovsky worked for several years in Russia as a physician and during World War I as an army doctor. After the Bolshevik revolution, his status and economic situation deteriorated. He ended up in working in Berlin but soon would become a refugee from Nazi Germany.

Tchernichovsky's poems were first published in Krakow in 1892. According to Robert Alter, writing in Jewish Heritage online "Tchernichovsky's work generally conveys a sense of being at home in a natural world, despite the physical uprootings and difficulties experienced by the man himself." Alter also noted that Tchernichovsky "significantly broadened the scope of Hebrew vocabulary" and "its verse forms." Tchernichosvky also wrote poems for children.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Arpaly, Boaz, Sha'ul Tshernihovski: mehkarim u-te'udot (title means "Saul Tchernichovsky, Studies and Documents"), Mosad Byalik (Jerusalem, Israel), 1994.