Welcome back and mazel Tov on the birth of your child! I have missed your selections and interpretations. This is a beautiful poem. I think it's perfect for our time, embodying a guarded hope that someone conceived in freedom will change the world. We need it. This poem tells me that any of us (all of us?) with passion strong enough could help to bring that to be.
Danny: Sorry for my delay in commenting—we’ve been busy with grandchildren’s college and high school graduations. I echo so many of the comments—it’s great to have your translations to chew on again; it’s a great poem for this time; the dialogue with the virgin birth is intriguing. I also wonder about the poem being “inside” the statue. I think of the Lazarus poem as having an “outside” perspective (and I also remember the Jewish cowboys in Texas poem we read in Asheville), and the “inside” provides a totally different framework for thinking about the American project. I look forward to continuing reading your translations and listening in on these conversations. Blessings to you in your new fatherhood.
Hi Jim, nothing to apologize for, and I'm sorry for responding so late as well. Congratulations on the graduations!
I love this distinction between being inside and outside the physical statue and the American project itself. And what it means to claim that insider status while remaining, in some way, spiritually outside what it represents. Much to mull over - thanks as always for your thoughts and kind words!
I needed this particular poem so much this week, thank you. I might want to set it to music, either in the original or in your translation or an intertwining of both-- if you would be interested in collaborating on that, let's talk.
The obvious comparison point to me is Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again," which is almost the exact contemporary of this poem. The ambivalence here is couched in more imagistic, less explicit terms, but I read it as a similar expression of love for a future America that might live up to its ideals, from one who hasn't been properly included in those ideals yet.
I also see a dialogue with Christianity here, and I wonder if you do too. The image of the child to be born who will redeem the world: is the Statue of Liberty Ravitch's version of the Virgin Mary? Is this somehow a way of exploring a struggle with his Judaism, of playing heretically with religious tropes much as "Dear Sister, When I Die" does?
Thanks for this very thoughtful comment! I'm absolutely with you on the resonances and tensions with Christianity. Reclaiming/subverting/engaging with Christian themes and images was part of the modernist project among many Yiddish artists in Ravitch's circles, and it's something that endlessly fascinates me. Lots of good writing about this like Neta Stahl's book "Other and Brother" and Matthew Hoffman's "From Rebel to Rabbi," in case you are interested in looking further into the topic.
And please feel free to email me or direct message me through the substack app if you end up working on a musical setting, as collaboration could be a lot of fun.
What a wonderful relevant poem. The complexity of the speaker occupying her interior, thinking of her as an empty soul, while her exterior lights the world as symbol. And Beautifully done, Danny. With some rhyme too: iron/giant, united/guided.
The inside/outside theme is so interesting. Even being inside her, he’s not an “insider”, and the suggestion once inside, it’s an empty experience. As the ideal America is being hollowed out, this poem stands as an exceptional image for us today. And we know the life-history of most golems! Danny, thank you for this, and I come to it with renewed commitment to the Jewish voice in poetry after our week at Yetzirah.
Welcome back and mazel Tov on the birth of your child! I have missed your selections and interpretations. This is a beautiful poem. I think it's perfect for our time, embodying a guarded hope that someone conceived in freedom will change the world. We need it. This poem tells me that any of us (all of us?) with passion strong enough could help to bring that to be.
Thanks, Paul!
I agree - in its refusal both of naive faith and of despair or cynicism, this poem feels very timely to me.
This poem is a bridge from Whitman to the Beat poets, like Ginsberg. A very interesting piece.
I love that framing of it, thank you - I think you are right, a kind of secret transitional poem.
Danny: Sorry for my delay in commenting—we’ve been busy with grandchildren’s college and high school graduations. I echo so many of the comments—it’s great to have your translations to chew on again; it’s a great poem for this time; the dialogue with the virgin birth is intriguing. I also wonder about the poem being “inside” the statue. I think of the Lazarus poem as having an “outside” perspective (and I also remember the Jewish cowboys in Texas poem we read in Asheville), and the “inside” provides a totally different framework for thinking about the American project. I look forward to continuing reading your translations and listening in on these conversations. Blessings to you in your new fatherhood.
Hi Jim, nothing to apologize for, and I'm sorry for responding so late as well. Congratulations on the graduations!
I love this distinction between being inside and outside the physical statue and the American project itself. And what it means to claim that insider status while remaining, in some way, spiritually outside what it represents. Much to mull over - thanks as always for your thoughts and kind words!
Glad to see you back! Mazel tov ❤️
Thank you!
I needed this particular poem so much this week, thank you. I might want to set it to music, either in the original or in your translation or an intertwining of both-- if you would be interested in collaborating on that, let's talk.
The obvious comparison point to me is Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again," which is almost the exact contemporary of this poem. The ambivalence here is couched in more imagistic, less explicit terms, but I read it as a similar expression of love for a future America that might live up to its ideals, from one who hasn't been properly included in those ideals yet.
I also see a dialogue with Christianity here, and I wonder if you do too. The image of the child to be born who will redeem the world: is the Statue of Liberty Ravitch's version of the Virgin Mary? Is this somehow a way of exploring a struggle with his Judaism, of playing heretically with religious tropes much as "Dear Sister, When I Die" does?
Thanks for this very thoughtful comment! I'm absolutely with you on the resonances and tensions with Christianity. Reclaiming/subverting/engaging with Christian themes and images was part of the modernist project among many Yiddish artists in Ravitch's circles, and it's something that endlessly fascinates me. Lots of good writing about this like Neta Stahl's book "Other and Brother" and Matthew Hoffman's "From Rebel to Rabbi," in case you are interested in looking further into the topic.
And please feel free to email me or direct message me through the substack app if you end up working on a musical setting, as collaboration could be a lot of fun.
Extraordinary poem, so glad you’re back at it and congrats on the new job
Thanks, Zander!
And more importantly congratulations on fatherhood!!!
What a wonderful relevant poem. The complexity of the speaker occupying her interior, thinking of her as an empty soul, while her exterior lights the world as symbol. And Beautifully done, Danny. With some rhyme too: iron/giant, united/guided.
Thank you for your comment, and for your attentive reading of some of these craft elements!
The inside/outside theme is so interesting. Even being inside her, he’s not an “insider”, and the suggestion once inside, it’s an empty experience. As the ideal America is being hollowed out, this poem stands as an exceptional image for us today. And we know the life-history of most golems! Danny, thank you for this, and I come to it with renewed commitment to the Jewish voice in poetry after our week at Yetzirah.