NMC202H1

The Birds and the Deer: Hebrew Poetry from the Bible to Modernity

Why do certain images persist across millennia of poetry? In this introductory class, we follow two animals through nearly three thousand years of Hebrew verse (read in English translation): the bird (tzipor) and the deer (tzvi; ayelet). From the biblical Song of Songs to the lyric poetry of 19th-century national revival, these creatures shape-shift through various contexts and meanings, embodying matrimonial love, homoerotic desire, piety, conquest, exile, and longing. Along the way, we will discover how these Hebrew images cross linguistic and cultural boundaries: the tzvi merges with the Arabic ghazal in Andalusian love poetry, while the Hebrew verb zamir (meaning "to prune") transforms into the romantic nightingale before returning to Hebrew as the word for songbird. Through close readings spanning biblical psalms to modernist verse, you will develop skills in poetic analysis and comparative poetics while tracing how poetry carries cultural memory across time and geography. Texts will be read in English, with Hebrew originals provided for Hebrew-reading students. No knowledge of Hebrew or poetry required.