Jerusalem

Antoni Slonimski

1922

See the Mount of Olives and the Greek monastery.
Minarets and cupolas abound,
Squares of yellow houses like honeycomb.
The valley of Josephat, white, dry fields—
There in the dell, where it is azure and quiet,
Immobile, deep in the very depths, lies
The dead and sultry sea, golden Jericho.
That tree you see, that’s the tree of Judah.
And those…
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Creator Bio

Antoni Slonimski

1895–1976

Raised Catholic in an assimilated Jewish family from Warsaw, Antoni Slonimski was a Polish poet, journalist, playwright, translator, and literary activist. The grandson of prominent religious thinker and writer rabbi Chaim Zelig Slonimski, he was a cofounder of the Skamander group of experimental poets and a frequent contributor to several periodicals, writing regular columns and reviews on theater, arts, and social satire. Slonimski spent World War II in exile in Paris and London, and served for several years in senior positions at UNESCO and the Polish Cultural Institute. Upon returning to Poland in the early 1950s, he was a leading member of the intelligentsia and head of the Union of Polish Writers, serving as a voice of criticism and liberalization. Although a victim of the wave of antisemitism that overtook Poland in 1968, Slonimski decided to stay in Poland. He was killed in an automobile accident in Warsaw.

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