Levi, Primo. Collected Poems. Translated by Ruth Feldman and Brian Swann. Faber & Faber, 1992.
Reference article:
- Weinstein, Anne. “Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-).” Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-), vol. 12, 1993, pp. 149–151. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41206191.
Primo Levi was born in Turin, Italy in 1919. A member of the anti-Fascist resistance, he was arrested and deported to Auschwitz in1944. There, his training as a chemist made it possible for him to survive.
Weinstein notes:
His poems like his prose deal with the responsibilities of the survivor, artist, human being, the brevity of life, the creative process, good and evil. They contain references to the Bible, Greek mythology, the Holocaust, his private life, profession and nature.” (Weinstein p. 149.)
Below are her brief comments on individual poems of Primo Levi: (Weinstein p. 150)
However, who can deny that Levi definitely had the impact on his readers that he hoped for when no one can possibly be the same after being exposed to his "way of shouting," (Agave), his way of "secreting tears, sperms, words," (Pearl Oyster), his constant warnings that "Life is brief- Art is long," (A Mouse). In "Partisan," he urges even "Old men, enemies of yourselves to get on your feet. /Our war is never over." Similarly, in "Proxy," he exhorts, "Help insecure one. Try though you're insecure. /Continue the race as best you can. /Take up the cause perplexed one" if "evil" is to be "translated into good" and "time" is to "reverse its course." Again, "This year in fear and shame./ Next year in virtue and justice." "We shall climb together toward the land/when we shall be men among men." "Impotencies . . . will become potent," (Dust). In "The Thaw," Levi looks back to when "Everything will be the way it used to be ... Killing seemed an evil then /Dying something remote," (Singing), "the remote time of certainties," (Partisan). And in "Songs of Those Who Died in Vain," Levi prays, "May all the wisdom of the universe converge to bless your minds (leaders' minds) and guide you in the maze."
These lines sound more like the man who managed to survive and imbued so much hope in others than the man who eventually despaired before he had time to complete more of his unwritten poems which begged for release. How tragic, for it would seem that words came to Levi, granted as he points out at a terrible price. In his poem, "Profession," Levi claims, "All you need to do is wait, fountain pen ready. /The lines will whirl around you." In "The Work," he also writes: "There now it's finished, there's no more to be done. /All I had to do was follow (the pen) /If you removed so much as a word . . . added one . . . changed one, it would jar." Levi points out the cost, "With every work that's born, you die a little." He echoes these lines in "Decathlon Man," when he writes, "I won, yes: I'm more famous today than yesterday /but a lot older and worn out. /I won, but it cost me a lot./What do people require of us, (meaning as Jews)/ ... to console the sorrowful? /Operate by compassion's rules?" Living up to his first name, Primo Levi lived up to his own requirements in bearing witness and revenge. In "For Adolf Eichman (all from Page 150 – Weinstein article.," Levi vents all his People's rage when he curses: "May you live longer than anyone lived. /And may you be visited each night (five million nights) by the suffering of everyone who say . . . the air fill with death.
