Creator Bio
Gustave Kahn
1859–1936
The symbolist poet and literary critic Gustave Kahn was born in Metz but moved to Paris with his family when Germany annexed Lorraine in 1870. Kahn was a contributor to many literary reviews and in the interwar years wrote weekly columns for daily newspapers. From 1932 until his death, Kahn edited the French Zionist journal Menorah. One of the first French poets to write free verse, he was also an avid advocate and defender of the new literary style. The Dreyfus Affair made Kahn more conscious of his Jewish background, as did the mounting antisemitism of the 1930s, and although he was distant from communal affairs, he became an active supporter of Zionism.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
One Yom Kippur
For a long time, Slimsohn had been saving considerable time and money on food. He had started by limiting himself to just one meal a day, towards evening, then delaying it until that undefinable…
Primary Source
The Pilgrim from the East
He was home from the East, this pilgrim.
He had left to seek a perfumed flower
that Solomon, whose hands grew dark
from constant prayers for beauty,
had planted in the gardens of En Gedi,
fashioned…
Primary Source
My Own
My lovely lady is like flights of scent—
the other day she opened like a flower—
She is beautiful as angels in the spring—
the other night her sun warmed my heart—
My lady’s lips are the single…