Barka'i ha-shelishi o go'el ha-dam: kollel shirim al yisrael ve-tikvatho [Barkoi Third or The Blood Avenger: Poems]. * Bound with: Two other works of Hebrew poetry

IMBER, NAPHTALI HERZ.

A.H. Rosenberg

New York

1904

Photographic portrait of Imber

Goldman, Hebrew Printing in America 431

Naphtali Herz Imber (1856-1909), famous for writing the Israel national anthem "Ha-Tikvah," was a native of Zlotchov, Galicia. Imber resided from 1892 until his death in the United States, where he found a patron in the person of Judge Meyer Sulzberger of Philadelphia. Though afflicted by alcoholism, the poet attained high lyrical notes. In the present collection, triggered by the atrocities of the Kishinev pogrom and the Russo-Japanese War, Imber almost prophetically predicts that "Ivan" will ultimately suffer defeat and humiliation at the hands of the Japanese. In fact, the entire collection is dedicated to His Majesty, the Mikado Mutsuhito, Ruler of Japan. Barka'i ha-Shelishi is the third collection of Imber's poetry. Barkai I appeared in Jerusalem in 1886, and Barkai II in Zlotchov in 1900. See EJ, Vol. VIII, cols. 1290-1291; M. Waxman, A History of Jewish Literature, IV, pp. 206-7