“None Are Like You, Shulamite”: Linguistic Longings in Jewish American Verse

In 1924, the German theologian and philosopher, Franz Rosenzweig, completed his translation of the Hebrew lyrics of the medieval Spanish poet, Yehudah Halevi. Reflecting upon his achievement, which included wrestling with the decision to “ introduce foreign rhymes into German,” Rosenzweig provocatively declared: “All Jewish poetry in exile scorns to ignore this being-in-exile.” That is, Jewish poetry, by definition, necessarily occupies an estranged relation to the world of which it is a part. This estrangement is especially acute in Jewish American poems which orient themselves toward Jewish languages (Hebrew and Yiddish) that are at a distance from the poet’s own native tongue.

My essay expands our understanding of how Jewish American verse may be animated by this linguistic longing—by examining two very different poets, Charles Reznikoff and Jacqueline Osherow, each of whom struggles with the obstacles posed by writing in English, a decidedly non-Jewish tongue.

For even as these poets share this longing, it informs their verse in significantly different ways. Reading Reznikoff within a theoretical frame provided by Rosenzweig’s work on translation, we discover a poet who believes that since translation is possible, relation with an Other may be achieved. His poems about Hebrew, as well as his own translations of Halevi, are restorative examples of poems born out of the conviction that one’s own language can be renewed through an active relation to the language of another. Turning to Osherow, we discover a markedly more elegiac position—a position made especially vivid when read within the framework of Walter Benjamin’s classic essay, “The Task of the Translator.” Osherow’s poems are poignant scenes of unfulfilled linguistic desire steeped in the knowledge of their exilic condition.