On a Hidden Light: A Reading of an Unfamiliar Poem by Dan Pagis

Abstract

This article discusses an unfamiliar poem by Dan Pagis—an untitled work whose opening line is “Gavoha, me'ever la-za'am (“High, beyond the fury”)—which was published recently on two different platforms, printed with a different structure in each case. The article presents the manuscript of the poem and on the basis of it proposes a third structural version of the poem and a close reading of it, in light of the critical discourse regarding the status of the speaker (“I”) in Pagis’ poetry and in relation to parallels in his poetic oeuvre.