The Fullness of Time: Poems

by Gershom Scholem, Steven M. Wasserstrom, Richard Sieburth

Poetry. Jewish Studies. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the German by Richard Sieburth. Edited, Introduced, and Annotated by Steven M. Wasserstrom. One of the greatest scholars of the twentieth century, Gershom Scholem virtually created the subject of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism as a serious area of study. His influence, however, has been felt far beyond the confines of the academy and to this day extends into the realm of literature and the arts. (Borges, for one, rhymed "Golem" with "Scholem.") Literature played a critical part in Scholem's own life, especially in his formative years, and he wrote poems from his teens on. This bilingual volume gathers together the best of them for the first time in any language. It contains dark, shockingly prescient political poems about Zionism and assimilation, parodies of German and Jewish philosophers, religious lyrics of a gnostic bent, and poems to other writers and friends such as Walter Benjamin, Hans Jonas, Ingeborg Bachmann, S. Y. Agnon, and others. "Abrupt, magisterial, quizzical, sometimes acidulous, and at moments poignantly wistful.... Scholem's verses return to an authentic Hasidic tradition of indicting God"—Harold Bloom.

Genres: Poetry

155 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2003

About the author

Gerhard Scholem, who, after his immigration from Germany to Israel, changed his name to Gershom Scholem (Hebrew: גרשם שלום), was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian. He is widely regarded as the founder of the modern, academic study of Kabbalah, becoming the first Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His close friends included Walter Benjamin and Leo Strauss, and selected letters from his correspondence with those philosophers have been published.

Scholem is best known for his collection of lectures, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941) and for his biography Sabbatai Zevi, the Mystical Messiah (1973). His collected speeches and essays, published as On Kabbalah and its Symbolism (1965), helped to spread knowledge of Jewish mysticism among non-Jews.

Reviews

[Michael Lindgren]

One of those small gems that can slip by even the most alert reviewer is Archipelago Books’s publication of "Greetings from Angelus," a slender collection of 21 lyric poems by the scholar Gershom Scholem, one of the towering figures of 20th-century Jewish intellectual culture. Written in German between 1915 and 1967, and presented here in a pleasing parallel edition, these poems offer a new insight into the great man’s intellectual and emotional development, although — as editor Steven M. Wasserman says in his marvelous introduction — “the revelation of (Scholem’s) German-language poems does not belie his Zionism.” Richard Sieburth has offered not just what would seem to be a translation faithful to Scholem’s “blocky, paratactic quatrains” but an epilogic translator’s note that is a marvel of concise and erudite exposition.

[Sam Bizarrus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think what makes this book interesting and compelling to me is Scholem's friendship with Walter Benjamin, plus his almost ludicrous devotion to mysticism in his scholarship. Both are evident here, but I mostly found his poetry to be inelegant. The first handful, lyric poems written in the early 20th century, including one homage to Herzl, lacked any surprise or sophistication in the meter, and ultimately felt overly didactic, strained, and immature. He has a sense of humor--in one poem he alphabetically lampoons his contemporary trends in philosophy, which was brazen and cheeky, and he rises to such heights a few times again, often invoking his good friend Benjamin. But, in the broader sea of early 20th-century lyric poetry, most of this collection doesn't hold up. Read a few smart poems in the middle of this collection, where he digs into his academic peers in an admittedly fast and snarky way, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scholem is, in his own words, a "bad poet." Thematically interesting if aesthetically and poetically stilted.

[Yu]

I definitely recommend this book! Reading Gershom Scholem's poems is a wonderful journey. His poems contain a brilliant and profound philosophical expression that is not too abstruse, rather easy to get. Yet not too plain, it is a feeling that can be shared by his readers. There are theoretical poems, which if I knew more background stories, it would be easier to understand. But in general, it was a pleasure to read his poems.