Rachel Morpurgo - 19th-century Italian Jewish poet

He whom my soul loves.

Bless our joyous day,

Light up our darkness;

Hasten please the End of Days.

Establish the Sanctuary,

We will then sing a new song:

His right hand has won Him victory.

The mingling of personal feeling and religious imagery makes her marriage a public event. [15]

After her marriage, she had little time to devote to her studies. Rachel bore three sons and a daughter. She was occupied with raising the children and housekeeping, and subsequently did not have much free time to learn. She would study at night after she completed the household chores and after the children were asleep. Castiglioni stated that her husband did not find much joy in her studies nor in her writings, but rather in his business affairs, and she fulfilled everything he requested of her. The sons followed in the footsteps of their father, becoming businessmen. According to Castiglioni, they themselves opted not to marry. Perla, her daughter, also never married. Even after the children were grown, Rachel was free to write only at night, since as her daughter recollected, she had no help in the home, while the household chores grew. She also devoted the days of Rosh Hodesh, when it was customary in certain Jewish communities for women to refrain from housework, to her writing. When she could not slee p, she would arise and commit some lines to writing, lest she forget them. Only after her husband realized that many prominent writers of the time lauded her, [16] did he and their sons come to recognize the full extent of her talent.

In a letter written in 1858 to the editor of Kokhevei Yizhak, for instance, she mentioned that she was writing on the Eve of Yom Kippur. She apologized for being unable to adhere to her initial intention of sending him four poems, stating that since it was the third hour past midnight, she would have to send the fourth another time. [17]

These three poems as well as her accompanying letter were subsequently published in the twenty-fifth issue of Kokhevei Yizhak, issued in 1860. [18] One of Rachel's poems explores the inner turmoil she experienced in her attempt to reconcile her literary life and her duties and obligations as a homemaker. [19]

[LANGUAGE NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]

I will attempt just this once

To see if I can compose a poem,

From near the kettle

I distanced myself in great wrath.

Rachel continued to compose poems and write letters, despite the stroke she suffered in 1865, at the age of seventy-five. Her later writings remained unpublished in her day. Her last poem was written several days prior to her death. The last word she wrote was "Elohai," "My God." [20]

The sonnet that Rachel had composed concerning Jacob Morpurgo in response to Shadal's appeared in 1847, i.e., some two years after Kokhevei Yizhak commenced publication, at the initiative of Shadal. [21] Already in her teens she wrote the epitaph of her tombstone, which was indeed later used. [22] The poem Rachel composed in honor of her wedding was published in the tenth issue of Kokkevei Yizhak. From that issue onwards, the writings of Rachel, be it poem, riddle or letter, appeared regularly until the twenty-second issue published in 1856, and thereafter in issues twenty-five and twenty-six (1860 and 1861). Shadal continued to serve as her patron, encouraging her to pursue her writing. Rachel generally sent her poems to Shadal, who forwarded them to the editor of Kokhevei Yizhak [23] Shadal himself, in a letter written to Abraham Geiger, stated that it was he who "gave Hebrew literature a live poetess." [24] Many of her poems address friends, male and female. [25]