Green Aquarium
Abraham Sutzkever
1956
1
“Your teeth are bars of bone. Behind them, in a crystal cell, your shackled words. Remember the advice of an elder: the guilty, those that dropped poison pearls into your goblet—let them go free. In thanks for your generosity, they will erect your immortality. But the others, the innocent, that trill falsely like nightingales over a grave—don’t…
Creator Bio
Abraham Sutzkever
The renowned Yiddish poet Abraham (Avrom) Sutzkever was born in Smorgon (in present-day Belarus) and spent his formative years studying and writing in Vilna, a center of Jewish intellectual life at the time. He fought in the partisan underground during the Nazi occupation of Poland, entered the Soviet Union following the war, and finally settled in Mandatory Palestine in 1947. The following year he founded the Yiddish literary quarterly Di goldene keyt. His writings have been widely translated.
Related Guide
The Early State of Israel and Jewish Culture
Early Israeli statehood balanced collectivist Zionist ideals with growing individualism and saw the emergence of a vibrant but conflicted national culture.
Related Guide
Art and Literature in the Postwar Period
Israeli art and literature reflected the emergence of a distinctive indigenous culture and moved from collectivist Zionist narratives toward individualism.
Related Guide
The Aftermath of the Holocaust in Israeli Culture
Israelis struggled to integrate Holocaust memory into national identity, as survivor literature challenged a preference for heroic resistance narratives.