Immanuel The Roman - Hebrew Poems

Hebrew Poems

Immanuel introduced the form of the sonnet from Italian literature into Hebrew, and in this respect he is justified in saying that he excelled his models, the Spaniards, because he introduced alternate rhyme instead of single rhyme. He also excelled in his inventiveness and humor. In his old age, during his sojourn in Fermo, he collected his Hebrew poems in the manner of Yehuda Alharizi, producing a diwan (collection of poetry) entitled Mehaberot. Out of gratitude to his generous friend, he put these poems in a setting that made it appear as if they had been composed entirely during his stay with him in Fermo and as if stimulated by him, though they were really composed at various periods.

The poems deal with all the events and episodes of Jewish life and are replete with clever witticisms, harmless fun, caustic satire, and at times, frivolity. The Hebrew idiom in which Immanuel wrote lends an especial charm to his work. His parodies of biblical and talmudic sentences, his clever allusions and puns, and his equivocations are such gems of diction that it is almost impossible to translate his poetry into another language.

There are twenty-seven poems all together, including satires and letters, prayers and dirges, on a great variety of themes, both serious and humorous. A vision entitled "Ha-Tofet ve-ha-Eden" ("Hell and Paradise), at the end of the diwan (poem 28) is a sublime finale, the seriousness of which is tempered by lighter passages, the humorist asserting himself even when dealing with the supernatural world. In it, the poet recounts how, as an old man of sixty, he was overcome by the consciousness of his sins and the fear of his fate after death, when a recently deceased young friend, Daniel, appeared to him, offering to lead him through the tortures of Hell to the flowering fields of the blessed. There then follows a minute description of Hell and Heaven. It need hardly be said that Immanuel's poem is patterned in idea as well as in execution on Dante's Divine Comedy. It has even been asserted that he intended to set a monument to his friend Dante in the person of the highly praised Daniel, for whom he found a magnificent throne prepared in Paradise. This theory, however, is untenable, and there remains only that positing his imitation of Dante. Though the poem lacks the depth, sublimity, and significant references to the religious, scientific, and political views of the time, which have made Dante's work immortal, nevertheless, Immanuel's poem is not without merit. His description, free from dogmatism, is true to human nature. It takes a humane point of view and is tolerant toward those of a different belief, something one looks for in vain in Dante, who excludes all non-Christians as such from eternal felicity.

Despite several printings of the diwan as a whole and the final poem individual, and despite some attempts at translation, the book is little known or disseminated. His contemporaries even censured Immanuel as a wanton scoffer, because he is occasionally flippant even in religious matters. He fared worse with later critics, and Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch codex of Jewish law, forbade the reading of his poems altogether. This stricture is due to the strong admixture of the lascivious, frivolous, and erotic found in the poems. Never has Hebrew poetry appeared so bold and wanton until the modern period, notwithstanding that his work contains poems filled with true piety and even with invitations to penitence and asceticism.