This groundbreaking collection presents for the first time in English a substantial body of poetry that emerges directly from the sublime and often startling world of Jewish mysticism. Taking up Gershom Scholem s call to plumb the tremendous poetic potential concealed in the Kabbalistic tradition, Peter Cole provides dazzling renderings of work composed on three continents over a period of some fifteen hundred years.
In addition to the translations and the texts in their original languages, Cole supplies a lively and insightful introduction, along with accessible commentaries to the poems. Aminadav Dykman adds an elegant afterword that places the work in the context of world literature. As a whole, the collection brings readers into the fascinating force field of Kabbalistic verse, where the building blocks of both language and existence itself are unveiled.
Excerpts from The Poetry of Kabbalah have been featured in the Paris Review, Poetry, and Conjunctions.
Studded with insight, and written with great verve, this book will become a classic. Lawrence Fine, author of Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos