National Jewish Book Awards Winner of Sephardic Studies Award,
2001. The Book of Tahkemoni (The Book of Wisdom or the Heroic) is
widely regarded as the crowning jewel of Hebrew maqama literature
-rhymed prose interspersed with verse. In its fifty unlinked
episodes we repeatedly encounter the somewhat roguish protagonist,
Hever the Kenite, often disguised and assuming many and varied
roles-teacher, beggar, adventurer, debater, magician, and so on.
Whether preaching, spinning history or fantasy, or working a crowd,
Hever the Kenite is ever a consummate story-teller and wordsmith
enlightening or astounding his listeners. The author, generally
considered to be the last major Hebrew poet of Spain, displays
great scope, moving from prayers to tales of battlefield carnage,
from philosophic reflection to droll satire targeting the pompous,
the ignorant, and the mean. The whole is conveyed in a sensuous
interweave of rhyme and rhythm, of literal and figurative speech,
and copious biblical citations manipulated to serve unusual ends.
David Simha Segal's translation captures the drama, wit, and satire
of the original in a contemporary English that displays vigour and
a sense of fun. Detailed annotations, printed on the same page as
the text, identify the numerous allusions. Analyses of each chapter
bring the reader more deeply into the text, illuminating plays on
words, adroit uses of the frame tale, adaptations of Arabic and
Hebrew literary conventions, and other subtleties of the original.
A substantial Afterword sums up major features discussed in the
analyses, especially the authorial game of hide-and-seek in the
characters of the protagonist and the narrator.
General
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