Charles Reznikoff (1894 - 1976) joods-Amerikaans dichter - met een gedicht over Spinoza

Reznikoff is not the poet as hero,
he is a distinct member of a tribe of poets,
an American-Jewish member who has helped found and continue poetic traditions—
both Jewish and American.
[Robert Manaster*) ]

Na lange tijd kan ik weer eens met een gedicht komen, waarin Spinoza een rol speelt. Ik ontdekte het onlangs. Het gedicht is te vinden in de bundel van

Charles Reznikoff, Jerusalem the Golden. New York: Objectivist Press, 1934 - 33 p.; 20 cm.

Daarin de vierdelige cyclus die de naam aan de bundel gaf: Jerusalem the Golden met: The Lion of Judah - The Shield of David – Spinoza - Karl Marx

In dit blog breng ik eerst het hele gedicht – om het voor zichzelf te laten spreken – het zou niet juist zijn om alleen dat over Spinoza hier over te nemen. In een volgend blog kom ik dan met enige achtergrondinformatie en nadere toelichting.

Jerusalem the Golden

The Lion of Judah

The men of war spoke: Your hand against mine.
Mine against yours. The field is mine! The water is mine!
If the city is taken, kill the men of war,
kill every male; rip up the women with child!
The prophet has said, Let not their cattle live,
not even calf nor lamb before the Lord;
and Samuel, the old man, so feeble he leaned against his staff,
cried to Saul, Give me their king,
give me their smiling king to cut into pieces before the Lord.
But Nathan said to the king, even David, the great king,
You have dealt deceitfully with the Hittite, your faithful servant;
and you shall not build the Lord's house,
because your hands have shed much blood.

II
The Shield of David

Then spoke the prophets: Our God is not of clay,
to be carried in our saddle-bags;
nor to be molten of silver or fine gold,
a calf to stand in our houses with unseeing eyes, unbending knees;
Who is the King of Glory?
He is from everlasting to everlasting;
we go down to the darkness of the grave,
but all the lights of heaven are His.

The smoke of your sacrifices is hateful, says the Lord,
I hate your festivals, your feasts, and your fasts;
worship Me in righteousness;
worship Me in kindness to the poor and weak,
in justice to the orphan, the widow, the stranger among you,
and in justice to him who takes his hire from your hand;
for I am the God of Justice, I am the God of Righteousness.

III
Spinoza

He is the stars,
multitudinous as the drops of rain,
and the worm at our feet,
leaving only a blot on the stone;
except God there is nothing.

God neither hates nor loves, has neither pleasure nor pain;
were God to hate or love, He would not be God;
He is not a hero to fight our enemies,
nor like a king to be angry or pleased at us,
nor even a father to give us our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses;
nothing is but as He wishes,
nothing was but as He willed it;
as He wills it, so it will be.

IV
Karl Marx

We shall arise while the stars are still shining,
while the street-lights burn brightly in the dawn,
to begin the work we delight in,
and no one shall tell us, Go,
you must go now
to the shop or office you work in
to waste your life for your living.
There shall be no more war, no more hatred;
none of us shall die of sickness;
there shall be bread and no one hunger for bread —
and fruit better than any a wild tree grew.
Wheels of steel and pistons of steel
shall fetch us water and hew us wood;
we shall call nothing mine — nothing for ourselves only.
Proclaim to the seed of man
throughout the length and breadth of the continents,
From each according to his strength,
to each according to his need.

Charles Reznikoff

De cyclus is op meerde plaatsen op internet te vinden: op poetrynook, op de website "Of Things Exactly As They Are": American Poetry of the 1930s, en in

The Poems of Charles Reznikoff: 1918-1975. Edited by Seamus Cooney. David R. Godine Publisher, 2005 - 445 pagina's – book.google
Ik nam de lay out zoals in dit boek gegeven is.

Zoals boven gezegd: In een volgend blog kom ik met enige achtergrondinformatie en nadere toelichting.

*) Robert Manaster, « Opening Up a Tradition, a Return from Exile: The Vision in Charles Reznikoff's "Jerusalem the Golden". » In: Shofar, Vol. 21, No. 1, Special Issue: Jewish Poetry (FALL 2002), pp. 44-62