Dan Pagis

Dan Pagis (1930-1986) was an Israeli poet, academic, and Holocaust survivor. Born in Bukovina, then part of Romania, he lost his family during the Holocaust and spent three years in a concentration camp in Ukraine. After liberation, he lived in a youth village in Israel before settling permanently there.

Pagis is known for his sparse, powerful poetry, often dealing with themes of loss, trauma, and the Holocaust. He frequently employed irony and a distanced, almost clinical tone in his work, creating a chilling and thought-provoking effect. His poems often explored the unrepresentability of the Holocaust experience and the limitations of language in conveying such extreme suffering.

Beyond his Holocaust-related poems, Pagis also wrote about time, history, and the complexities of the human condition. He was a professor of Medieval Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his academic work informed his poetry, lending it a sophisticated intellectual depth.

His significant collections include Shadow Clock (1959), Late Leisure (1964), Brain (1969), Transformation (1970), and Points of Departure (1981). His work has been widely translated and studied, securing his place as one of Israel's most important poets.