Masterpieces of Hebew Literature: Selections from 2000 Years of Jewish Creativity

THE POETIC PICARESQUE: Introduction

The Poetic Picaresque The popularity of secular poetry, as expressed by the major figures of the Golden Age in Spain, and the concomitant growth of secular life, prompted the development of poetic fiction, based primarily on the Arabic maqama. The maqama (literally, the marketplace where the people while away the time) was a complex genre in Arabic (and later in Hebrew) literature which has no Western equivalent: it is a dramatic narrative told in rhymed prose which centers on one picaresque protagonist who wanders about the world telling of his adventures, and another (the author himself) who acts as his interlocutor. Accenting word play and wit, the maqama is made up of a number of subsections, each an independent story. Although it is a narrative, the short sentences are rhymed and rhythmic, containing parables, epigrams and proverbs. Unlike poetry, however, there is no fixed meter and no prescribed number of feet to the line. Occasionally, poems are added at the end of a maqama to sum up the story and point up the moral. One of the early important Hebrew versions of the maqama was the Book of Delight, written by Barcelona-born Joseph ibn Zabara (1140-1200) toward the end of the twelfth century. In contrast to previous nonsacred works, the satirical Book of Delight , with its miscellany of stories, parables and fables, does not accent morality, nor does it disguise its secularity by urging man to avoid the world's vanities and prepare for the world to come. Based upon real adventures as filtered through the author's imag389 390 MASTERPIECES OF HEBREW LITERATURE ination, the Book of Delight is one of the first Hebrew works constructed as a frame narrative (as are Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio's Decameron). Stories intertwine and there are tales within tales, some of whose motifs can be traced to Indian, Latin and even Chinese sources. However, the story of Tobit is modelled after its ancient Jewish original (see Book of Tobit, p. 27). The classical exponent of the Hebrew maqama was the troubador -poet Judah al-Harizi (1165-1225). Beginning his literary career as a translator, al-Harizi soon gained fame at this art and, along with Samuel ibn Tibbon, rendered Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed into Hebrew; but unlike the former's accurate and scientific translation, al-Harizi's was a simple and popular edition . Before he began to contribute to Hebrew letters with his original poetry and storytelling, he served his apprenticeship in translating an Arabic maqama. After he had successfully demonstrated that Hebrew was as capable as Arabic in producing the technically sophisticated form, he turned to original creation. In writing the Tahkemoni (composed between 1214-1218), alHarizi produced the first Hebrew maqama wherein the verbal pyrotechnics are as prominent as in the Arabic form. The Tahkemoni contains fifty sections, independent of one another except for the unifying link provided by the two itinerant heroes. The contents are variegated: travel stories, fables, parables, riddles, parodies, prayers and laments. What the Greeks did with Homer, and the Arabs did with the Koran, alHarizi did with verses from the Bible, often changing a word or even a letter with comical results. The technical skill displayed in Tahkemoni is amazing: an epistle that can be read forward as a blessing and backward as a curse, and one section whose rhyming triplets are in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. The poet even includes a section of literary criticism, reviewing and evaluating the poetry of Judah Halevi, Solomon ibn Gabirol and Abraham ibn Ezra. The Tahkemoni is also to a degree a personal document—the author praises his patrons, and satirizes pseudo-poets, hypocrites and heartless men of wealth. The works of Ibn Zabara and al-Harizi are representative of the poetic picaresque in Hebrew literature, and each excelled in a special sphere—the Book of Delight in narrative, and Tahkemoni in language and variety of subject matter. THE BOOK OF DELIGHT—JOSEPH IBN ZABARA CHAPTER I ZABARA BEHOLDETH IN HIS DREAM A MAN EXCEEDINGLY TALL, WHO DOTH THEN ROUSE HIM OUT OF HIS SLUMBER, AND GIVE HIM VICTUALS TO EAT. BUT FIRST HE DISPUTETH WITH HIM CONCERNING* PRAYER AND FOOD AND WINE. There lived a man in the city of Barcelona whose name was Joseph ben Zabara. From his youth up had he dwelt at ease, in amity with his friends and comrades. All that knew him became his friends...