A Gost, a Converso and a Poem: A Letter to Gonzalo de la Caballería by Shelomo Ben Reuben Bonafed
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This article has been written under the Project INTELLEG, European Reasearch Council
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MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 A GOST, A CONVERSO AND A POEM: A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY SHELOMO BEN REUBEN BONAFED* Un fantasma, un converso y un poema: Una carta de Shelomo ben Reuben Bonafed a Gonzalo de la Caballería ARTURO PRATS OLIVÁN Universidad Complutense de Madrid BIBLID [1696-585X (2010) 59; 243-278] Resumen: En este artículo propongo analizar un poema de Shelomo ben Reuben Bonafed (s. XV) dirigido a Vidal/Yosef ben Labi, ya convertido bajo el nombre de Gonzalo de la Caballería. El análisis de estos versos muestra cómo Bonafed, discípulo del círculo de poetas de Zaragoza, jugó un importante papel en la re-invención de la literatura Hebrea que se había iniciado años antes con sus maestros y cómo Bonafed consideraba la lengua Hebrea y la literatura secular producida en esta lengua como depositarias de la identidad cultural «hispano-hebrea» de la que él se sentía heredero y adalid. Abstract: In this paper I propose to analyze a poem by Shelomo ben Reuben Bonafed, a renowned Hebrew poet who lived in the kingdom of Aragon during the first half of the 15th century. Analysis of this poem will allow us to see how Bonafed, a disciple of the circle of poets of Zaragoza, played his part in a re-invention of Hebrew literature that had been initiated a few years earlier by his masters, Shelomo de Piera and Vidal/Yosef ben Labi. Bonafed thought that the Hebrew language and Hebrew poetry were the depositaries of a «Hispano-Hebrew» cultural identity of which he felt himself to be a part. Palabras clave: Shelomo Bonafed, Literatura hebrea, Gonzalo ibn Labi, Aragón, siglo XV. Key words: Shelomo Bonafed, Hebrew literature, Gonzalo ibn Labi, Aragon, fifteenth century. Recibido: 26/10/2010 Aceptado: 12/01/2011 In Múltiples Moradas, his well-known collection of essays on comparative literature, Claudio Guillén made a call for the need to investigate «with exactitude the processes of invention of national literatures» within each of the European languages (i.e. in the fields of Hispanists, Germanists etc).1 Although in his essay Guillén focussed * This article has been written under the Project INTELLEG, European Reasearch Council. 1. See Guillén, 1998: 313-314.
ARTURO PRATS MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 244 mainly on the period after the mid-18th century, I believe that the same need can be said to exist for the 15th century, especially if in carrying out such research we replace the rather Victorian concept of «national state identity» with the more medieval one of «national cultural identity». The 15th century saw the emergence of the pairing of national author/national literature2 which would later evolve into that of literature (language)/nation. The same century witnessed a proliferation of texts tying national or cultural identity («Hispanic», «Italian» etc) to a language, and to literary production written in that language.3 This same period also saw a «renaissance» of literature in Hebrew within the Hispanic territories, especially in the kingdom of Aragon, and this literature, as we will see, was regarded by its authors as an element of socio-cultural cohesion.4 Numerous studies have demonstrated the ways in which human societies in their different cultures have constructed their identities or have created them by using literature and language as an effective tool for modelling those identities.5 With this idea in mind, the poetry of Shelomo ben Reuben Bonafed can also be read in its historical, social and literary contexts in an effort to understand the way in which the poet constructs, manipulates and uses literature as a tool for the construction of identity. In this paper I propose to analyze a poem by Shelomo ben Reuben Bonafed, a renowned Hebrew poet who lived in the kingdom of Aragon during the first half of the 15th century.6 Analysis of this poem will allow us to see how Bonafed, a disciple of the circle of poets of Zaragoza, played his part in a re-invention of Hebrew literature that had been initiated a few years earlier by his masters, Shelomo de Piera and 2. See Gómez Moreno, 1994: 133 and ff. 3. Numerous examples could be cited, but among the best-known are the Prohemio and Lamentación de España by the Marquis of Santillana, or the Triunfo del marqués de Santillana written by his secretary Diego de Burgos after his death. 4. I have borrowed this concept from the article by Itamar Even Zohar: Even Zohar, 1994: 360. 5. See Anderson, 1991; Guillén, 1998: 299; and Even Zohar, 1994: 357-377. 6. The poem was edited by Schirmann together with other poems and prose texts dealing with the conflict between Shelomo Bonafed and the aljama of Zaragoza in Schirmann, 1946: 31-34. The poem was partially translated into Spanish in SáenzBadillos, 2000: 200-201.
A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY BONAFED MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 245 Vidal/Yosef ben Labi.7 Bonafed thought that the Hebrew language and Hebrew poetry were the depositaries of a «Hispano-Hebrew» cultural identity of which he felt himself to be a part. For him, this identity stood in clear opposition to the emerging vernacular literature, and the Hebrew language and its poetry were also the depositaries of a Jewish religious identity which was then redefining itself in the face of the threat of religious conversions. A reading of Bonafed’s poem will enable us to see how, in the period after the Disputation of Tortosa, the poet sought to maintain contact with those Jews who had already converted to Christianity and to try to prevent new conversions among the young of the Jewish elites by using Hebrew poetry and the Hebrew language as an identifying bond, both cultural and religious, with elite conversos like Gonzalo de la Caballería,8 to whom the poem is addressed. None of this took place in a vacuum; nor was it self-generated from within the Jewish community itself. It developed in a complex world that was enormously diverse in social, cultural and religious terms: the world of the kingdom of Aragon during the first half of the 15th century. Before analyzing the poem, I would like to comment briefly on two events in Bonafed’s life which marked his poetry and which are crucial to an understanding of the author and the work which is the focus of this paper. These two events are the Dispute of Tortosa (1413-1414) and the confrontation between Bonafed and the aljama of Zaragoza which occurred twenty years after that religious dispute. The Dispute of Tortosa9 was ordered and directed by Pope Benedict XIII, with the approval of the king Fernando I, and was able to reckon with the collaboration of the converso Jerónimo de Santa Fe. The event was organized with the purpose of converting the Jews of the kingdom of Aragon to Christianity by means of argument, and it was a key milestone in the mass conversion of Jews which had started to take place in huge 7. This man’s full name was Vidal Yosef ben Labi de la Caballería or Vidal Yosef ben Benvenist ben Labi de la Caballería. After his conversión he took the name of Gonzalo. Bonafed addresses him in this poem as Gonzalo ben Labi or simply Labi, using just the Hebrew part of his whole family name. 8. Bonafed refers to him as Gonzalo ibn Labi, using his Christian name and the Hebrew section of his family name excluding the title «de la Caballería». 9. For this dispute see Pacios López, 1957, and Baer, 1998: 611 and ff.
ARTURO PRATS MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 246 numbers since the unrest and massacres of 1391, although at first only among the lowest social classes.10 Many intellectuals and members of Jewish elite society converted at about the time of the Dispute of Tortosa, and one of the best-known figures to do so was Vidal Yosef ben Labi de la Caballería. Vidal, who adopted the name Gonzalo after his baptism, was a convert of special interest to the king himself11 and is known to have converted during the period of the Dispute.12 Much, though not all, of his family seems to have converted with him,13 as did many members of his household, among them the renowned poet Shelomo de Piera,14 founder of the literary movement known as «the circle of poets of Zaragoza».15 It is likely that Shelomo Bonafed was himself part of this group of writers or poetic school, founded several years before his conversion by Shelomo de Piera, and which also included de Piera’s disciple Vidal/Gonzalo ibn Labi de la Caballería, as well as other poets like Vidal Benveniste. It was a literary movement which sought, like that of the Consistori de la Gaya Ciencia within the Provençal poetic tradition, to revive the Andalusi Hebrew literary tradition and create a «neo» Andalusi literature written in the Hebrew language.16 Bonafed was a witness in Tortosa to the conversion of many of those whom he considered the depositaries of the Jewish culture of his time as embodied in Hebrew poetry. Among these men were two of its major literary referents and intellectual bulwarks: Shelomo de Piera and Gonzalo ibn Labi. It is hardly surprising that as a result of this traumatic experience Bonafed, who held on to his Jewish faith, should have suffered some sort of a crisis or breakdown, during which he gave up writing altogether. After a year, as Bonafed himself records, he managed to recover and went 10. See Baer, 1998, especially pp. 531-733 and Gutwirth, 1993: 97-121. 11. Vendrell Gallostra, 1950: 349-66. 12. The classic study of the Caballería family is in Vendrell Gallostra, 1943: 115154. For Vidal ben Labi=Gonzalo de la Caballeria or ben Labi see especially Taragarona - Sáenz-Badillos, 1998-1999: 173-205. 13. The mother of Gonzalo ben Labi, Doña Tolosana, never converted. See Blasco Martínez, 1991: 77-120. (see especially p. 88-93), and Targarona, 2007: 211-224. 14. For this author see Targarona, 1998: 541-51. 15. For this movement see Targarona, 2002: 249-268. 16. For the possible relation between the two movements see Scheindlin, 1997: 36.
A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY BONAFED MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 247 back to writing in Hebrew with renewed energy and a clear purpose, that of trying to prevent further conversions of young elite Jews, as well as trying to persuade those such as Gonzalo who had already been baptised to return to their former religion. The weapon chosen for this task was, as I have already explained, Hebrew poetry. In this way Bonafed sought to stand up to the Romance literature written by conversos which in his view led its authors to run the risk of being assimilated within Christianity and Romance and classical culture. Twenty years after the Dispute of Tortosa, Bonafed found himself in Belchite, a town close to Zaragoza where he had taken refuge after fleeing at the end of a bitter confrontation with the leaders of the Jewish community of Zaragoza and their rabbi. The powerful aljama of Zaragoza and its leaders, who had moved to fill the power vacuum created by the conversion of dignitaries like Vidal/Gonzalo de la Caballería, had elected a new rabbi from Sicily who was not at all to Bonafed’s liking, and as a result of the confrontation Bonafed chose to exile himself in Belchite. From his new home, the poet composed a series of letters and poems in about 144517 which were directed against the aljama of Zaragoza and its rabbi. These writings were addressed to those friends Bonafed still had in the city, who were asked to make sure the works were distributed there. One of these texts was the poem which is the concern of this study, and it was accompanied by a poem addressed to Moshe ben Eleazar, another of Bonafed’s allies in Zaragoza, mentioned by Bonafed in verse 16. Bonafed states in the introductory text which stands at the head of his poem that he wrote the work in Belchite and that it is addressed to «Gonzalo ibn Labi». He says that he composed it because there had fallen into his hands a poem entitled «My throat is dry from crying out»18 by Ibn Gabirol, an 11th century Andalusi author. In this well-known work, Gabirol had made bitter complaints about the community of Zaragoza, 17. This date appears in another of the poems published by Schirmann that is included in the «cycle» of writings on Bonafed’s disagreement with the aljama of Zaragoza. See Schirmann, 1946: 48, Poem 8. In verse 4 the following words appear: In the year of: «Then we will raise up to the mountain of/The Lord the powerful patrons of generous souls»: ‘‘ 18. The poem is edited in Hebrew in Schirmann, 1954-60, I: 207-210, and translated into Spanish in Sáenz Badillos - Targarona, 1988: 119-121.
ARTURO PRATS MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 248 who had forced him to flee the city. Bonafed writes that after reading Gabirol’s poem he decided to speak out in a similar way against the Zaragozans of his own day, whom he immediately identified with those of Gabirol’s lifetime, and to this end he composed a poem closely resembling that of Gabirol, and using the same rhyme scheme and metre. However, as we will see, Bonafed’s work turned out to be rather more than a poem of complaint against a community that had treated him badly. Let us now consider the content of Bonafed’s poem. As the author says, it is constructed «in the exact image» of a famous qasida of complaint written by Gabirol against the Jews of Zaragoza. The custom of poetic imitation or response was typical of Andalusi literature (mu‘arada) and also occurs in Romance literature and other literatures of the period. However, Bonafed’s poem is a far from conventional qasida19 and its structure is completely different from that of Gabirol, despite the fact that it has some features in common with it, such as the mono-rhymed nature of the poem or its polythematic make-up. Yet Bonafed’s choice of the classic qasida form and his re-working of Gabirol’s poem are significant to his pursued aim of investing the work with «classical authority». His is a new poem «dressed up» in a classical disguise, that of the qasida, and linked to a chosen «classical» author, Shelomo ibn Gabirol. Bonafed’s aim was to turn the new poem into a «classical model» full of cultural and religious authority. The poem begins in the first person, in the voice of Bonafed himself (verses 1-14), complaining about a «lost people», the Jews of Zaragoza, who had strayed from the right path because of an «evil shepherd», the Sicilian rabbi Yeshua ibn Galuf. Bonafed declares in these first verses that his intention in composing this poem was that of «proclaiming his outrage and his anger» against the people of Zaragoza who had treated him so badly and amongst whom he could find no-one who could understand his art. Bonafed felt that he was alone. All those who might have understood his poetry were «dead», he wrote, and the «saints of the world» did not understand his poems. In writing these words Bonafed was anticipating 19. For the Arabic and Hebrew qasida respectively see Gruendler, 2000: 21-231 and for the Hebrew qasida see Alfonso, 2003: 127-150.
A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY BONAFED MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 249 the appearance in his poem of a dead figure from the past whom he intended to resuscitate: Shelomo ibn Gabirol. He was also making reference to the conversos, one of whom was Gonzalo ibn Labi, the man to whom the poem is directly addressed. In other words, Bonafed sought not only to awaken a truly dead man, Shelomo Ibn Gabirol, but also one who had died at the baptismal font, Gonzalo. Bonafed also records that his loneliness and anxiety were only alleviated by God, to whom he had turned in the hope of consolation and salvation, given that God alone could assist him. In this first part of the poem two of the four main protagonists of the work are therefore presented i.e. God and Bonafed, and the poet hints at the later appearance of the other two fundamental figures in it, Shelomo Ibn Gabirol and Gonzalo ben Labi. Between verses 14 and 20, Bonafed introduces the names of the two addressees of his letters. One is Moshe ben Eleazar, a Jew of Zaragoza to whom Bonafed writes from Belchite and to whom he was also to write a second poem, and Gonzalo ben Labi, to whom the current poem is addressed. Bonafed declares that although no-one now listens to him, two famous figures yet remain who can still understand his poetry: Moshe ben Eleazar (Moshe) and Gonzalo ben Labi (Labi). One was a converso and the other was still a Jew. But Bonafed has to clarify that although his friend Gonzalo has converted and cut himself off from his former colleague, although, as he writes, «exile has separated us / and it has moved my landmark» (verse 18), he still appreciates his friend and «knows his robe». This is a Biblical reference to the story of Yehuda and Tamar. When Yehuda lies with Tamar he leaves his robe with her as a token of his love and she later presents it as proof of her innocence when she is accused of adultery after becoming pregnant as a result of her encounter with him. In this way Bonafed alludes to the «Jewishness» of Gonzalo, who is Judá=Yehudah i.e. a Jew, and hints that Gonzalo will eventually recognise his robe, or his religion and culture, which he has left as a token with Bonafed/Tamar. Bonafed is confident that Gonzalo will return to his Jewish faith and declares the impossibility of going on without him. But in the next verse another section of the poem begins in which Bonafed displays the arms he will use to convert Gonzalo back to his former «culture» and «religion».
ARTURO PRATS MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 250 Between verses 21 and 26, Bonafed describes the appearance to him of the deceased Shelomo ibn Gabirol. This was not a vision in dreams, but a full-scale apparition fulfilling all the thematic assumptions of a celestial revelation charged with religious references: Shelomo Ibn Gabirol appears as an archangel,20 with a sword in his right hand and bolts of lightning emerging from his mouth. It is a terrifying image which resembles such accounts of religious apparitions as the one given by Vicente Ferrer.21 Ferrer explains how one of the ways of telling the difference between a true apparition and a false one is that the former causes fear in the observer. As a result of this, the being who makes such an apparition will move to calm the terror he has caused: «Peace be with you ben Reuben, beloved/of my delights, my joy/fear not, for I have come to your aid/with my power and my strength». The words pronounced by Shelomo Ibn Gabirol in Bonafed’s poem thus reflect the model of Biblical apparitions as laid out by Vicente Ferrer. Shelomo ibn Gabirol’s appearance in the poem follows the format of a religious apparition, but in this case the appearance was made by a poet, albeit a poet to whom Bonafed attributed quasi-divine powers. Shelomo ibn Gabirol was the bearer of two essences which were in fact one and the same, and to which Bonafed wants Gonzalo to make a return: HispanoHebrew culture and the Jewish religion which Gonzalo had abandoned twenty years earlier. The poem continues until the end in the voice of Ibn Gabirol, but it is a voice which is identified with that of Bonafed. Ibn Gabirol at first addresses himself to Bonafed, calming him and declaring the reason for his appearance: to help him against his enemies, the Jews of Zaragoza, with whom Shelomo ibn Gabirol had already clashed in the past. The first part of this speech, between verses 27 and 34, is given over to placing both voices on the same level in such a way that they become one and the 20. Some fifteenth-century saints are also represented as warriors, e.g. Saint George or Santiago=Saint James. See Roig, 1991. 21. Christian, 1981: 200: «And notice that one day Zacharias went to the Temple to pray, and when he was praying the Angel Gabriel appeared to him on the altar, and Zacharias was terrified. “Fear not, Zacharias”. You see that the doctrine is correct that when the good angel or a soul appears to a person, at first they make him terrified, because the flesh cannot bear so much; but then they console him (aconsole); hence, “Fear not”».
A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY BONAFED MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 251 same. Bonafed and Ibn Gabirol, both of whom had confronted the «evil» population of Zaragoza, become from this point on the one voice that will pronounce, at the end of the poem, a speech of affirmation of the Jewish faith. Shelomo Ibn Gabirol is Shelomo Bonafed and Shelomo Bonafed is Shelomo Ibn Gabirol: They thought that you were me and they hated you / in my place. They saw that you were my equal in poetry, / of equal worth and of the same age, / that my name was within you and that, in this generation, / you had achieved such greatness as me. / They thought that I had risen from / the grave and that the Šeol had opened (verses 30-33). Between verses 34 and 39, the lyrical voice of Shelomo Ibn Gabirol continues to be directed at Bonafed, singled out and separated by Gabirol from the evil inhabitants of Zaragoza whom the poet-archangel says that he will annihilate. From verses 40 to 46, Shelomo Ibn Gabirol, after singling out Bonafed and the just individuals who show him respect and courtesy, launches into accusations aimed at the inhabitants of Zaragoza, whom he now addresses. The voice of Shelomo Ibn Gabirol/Bonafed pours out a series of accusations against the Zaragozans as if the two poets were the same person. Through the voice of Shelomo Ibn Gabirol, Bonafed accuses the Zaragozans of various errors or failings, the first of which is genealogical. Bonafed accuses them of being people of dubious origin, claiming that they are Christians or Muslims who have disguised themselves as Jews. This is the same sort of accusation or insult as that commonly found in song-poetry where the Jewish convert to Christianity hides his true (Jewish) form beneath the disguise of his Christianity.22 Bonafed/Gabirol also accuses the Zaragozans of being traitors, of having sold him and then boasted about humiliating him. Finally, he also accuses them of having caused death to the prophets. It should be remembered that Bonafed considered the prophets to be poets23 and that 22. See, for example, the series of poems by Juan Poeta and Gómez Manrique in which each of the two authors attacks the other by making allusions to the alleged converso origins of his opponent: Gómez Manrique, 2003: 331-348. See also the folllowing studies: Cantera, 1967: 71-111 and Martínez Bogo, 2002: 387-401. 23. See poem zekor ha-shir fol. 33r-34v and published in Kaminka, 1928.
ARTURO PRATS MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 258 the Triunfo del Marqués de Santillana written after the Marquis’s death by his secretary Diego de Burgos.45 It is not surprising, then, that Hebrew poets of the period should have sought to build their own pantheon of cultural authorities like Ibn Gabirol or Yehuda ha-levi, who are treated as founding figures of Hispano-Hebrew culture in early 15th century Aragon, and neither is it surprising that the literary technique of the «vision» should have been used for such purposes. Another of the elements in Bonafed’s poem which contributes to the poet’s construction of Gabirol as a «lay saint» is that which appears in verse 39, in the speech made by Gabirol/Bonafed against the evil ones of Zaragoza and in support of the few good men left among them: For this reason, the forgotten people of God46 / kneel down and give thanks before my statue (verse 39). The reference to a statue (pesel) which seems to represent Shelomo ibn Gabirol and before which the just people forgotten by God «kneel» to give thanks places us in a visual referent highly appropriate to cultural images of the 15th century. We can understand this reference in its religious dimension, in which the figure of Gabirol is compared with that of a saint with an image which is venerated like those of Christian saints i.e. by means of a statue that is worshipped. The association between apparitions of saints and preexisting images (statues or paintings) which take on new leases of life thanks to the phenomenon of their apparition is well documented in the 15th century.47 The same century also saw what has been called an «iconographic explosion»48 that was accompanied by a theological discussion on the subject which had a direct effect on the converso community.49 44. Juan de Mena, 2009. 45. Diego de Burgos, 2008: 1-86. Electronic edition: http://parnaseo.uv.es/Lemir/ Revista/Revista 12/Santillana.pdf. 46. Psalms 9,18. 47. Christian, 1981: 205. 48. See Pereda, 2007: 20. 49. Pereda, 2007.
A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY BONAFED MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 259 But I am more interested in the cultural dimension of the phenomenon of the statue or represented image. In this respect it is important to emphasise that in the incipient humanism that was starting to emerge in the courts of Aragon and Castile there was great literary curiosity concerning the lives of illustrious figures of the past and in the panegyrical portrait,50 literary genres to which we must add an artistic interest in the pictorial and sculptural portraits of the same figures and in classical remains, among which portrait-statues were often found. Spain saw the appearance later than Italy of portraits of illustrious figures such as the first likenesses made of literary figures like the Marquis of Santillana51 or the medallion of Alphonse V,52 both of which date from this period. In Italy, there were very numerous examples: there were statues of Pliny the Younger and Pliny the Elder, considered illustrious sons of the town of Como and positioned at the door of its cathedral,53 and 14th century Mantua saw the coining of a medal with the effigy of Virgil.54 There was an increasing number of such examples throughout the 15th century and portraits of illustrious men of the Renaissance or the Middle Ages proliferated, such as those of Bocaccio, Dante and the classical poets. The emergence of an interest in the individual and the tie between classical figures and national identities match closely the use made by Bonafed of Ibn Gabirol in his poem and match also the reference to a «statue» of the latter which ought to be venerated. A statue of Gabirol may or may not have existed, but the striking fact is that Bonafed evokes it within this «construction» of Gabirol as a figure of reference in a Hispano-Hebrew «literature» which sinks its roots deep into antiquity, just like that of the Romance, and which has heroic figures of its own who are no less acclaimed than Virgil or Dante. Hebrew-language poetry also wants to create its champions, in the image of the champions who were being created by the infant literature of the vernacular languages, and to 50. For more on this subject see the chapter on biography and the galleries of illustrious men in Gómez Moreno, 1994: 227 and ff. 51. Portrait of the Marquis by Jorge Inglés for the retablo of the Virgin in the Hospital of Buitrago. 52. Relief work by the Italian sculptor Mino da Fiesole (1429-1484), or the portraits on coins and medallions. 53. Gómez Moreno, 1994: 233. Taken from Macek, 1965: 313. 54. Macek, 1965: 313.
ARTURO PRATS MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 260 whom statues, medallions and pictorial images were already being dedicated. Another central element in Bonafed’s poem and in his strategy for the reconversion of Gonzalo is that of the Hebrew language and Hebrew poetry, which lie behind the fabrication of the figure of Gabirol as a «hero» of the Parnassus of this literature and its language. The Hebrew language and the poetry written in it are, in Bonafed’s hands, an instrument to be used to attract conversos back to their old faith, as he himself states in another poem addressed to the converso Isaac Adret: Look at the fire of my words that burns on the glorious mount; / Prostrate yourself if you are afraid to come near.55 / I capture the heart of the wise to such an extent that they ask / If there is a net56 among the words that fall fruit of my lips.57 According to Peter Burke, language is not a simple «reflection» of a society, but «an active force in society, a means for individuals and groups to control others or to resist such control, for changing society or for blocking change, for affirming or suppressing cultural identities».58 Bonafed uses both the Hebrew language and the literary and cultural apparatus of Andalusi Judaism as a «means of affirming» Hispanic Jewish cultural identity in the face of the emerging converso identity, which used Romance or Latin. This seems to be a response to the use of Hebrew by some conversos (Abner de Burgos, Alfonso de Valladolid, Jordi de Sant Jordi) to attract former co-religionaries to Christianity. Alfonso de Valladolid wrote in Hebrew, although he also translated his own works into Romance. Hebrew, like any other language, is an instrument, a weapon that can be used by individuals or groups to promote their own interests, even when those interests conflict as in the cases of the conversos and the Jews. The first half of the 15th century in Spain was, for Castile and Aragon, a period which saw the beginnings of the irruption of humanism, which then continued to develop slowly throughout the Iberian peninsula. One of 55. Exodus 34,30. 56. Psalms 21,3. 57. ‘Al ug dearea, fol 23v. Poem published in Gross, 1993: 53. 58. Burke, 1993: 26.
A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY BONAFED MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 261 the main results of this movement was the massive translation of classic works into the vernacular, as well as the development of a vernacular literature. The role of Latin as a classical language and its adoption for use in the identity discourse of the humanist elites both in Italy and in Castile and Aragon were also important features of this period.59 It is worth pointing out that in parallel with the process of vernacular re-creation of classical and Italian culture (through translations of Dante, Petrarch etc), the circle of Hebrew poets of Zaragoza decided to concentrate its efforts on recovering the Hebrew language and its literature, rescuing figures who began to assume the form of «classic» writers. The parallel between the Virgil of Dante’s work and the figure of Shelomo ibn Gabirol as brought back to life in Bonafed’s poem is illustrative in this respect. The «pre-philological» desire of the humanists to rescue from the shelves of European libraries the classics of Greece and Rome finds an echo in Bonafed’s interest in recovering the work of Shelomo ibn Gabirol, although it is re-used and manipulated to serve his own interests, in this case the letter to Gonzalo. The topos of poetry as a means of expressing wisdom and truth came up against its opposite, the common topos throughout the Middle Ages of poetry as deceit and artifice.60 For Bonafed, as for other leading writers in Romance during his time, poetry was the most sublime literary form and a bearer of divine virtues which found its first and most valuable justification in the Bible itself. In the Prohemio of the Marquis of Santillana we see a similar defence of poetry, taken from the Etimologies of Saint Isidore,61 and which also appears in other works:62 And thus, following the path of the Stoics, who with great diligence looked into the origin and causes of things, I dare to say that poetry came earlier 59. See Gómez Moreno, 1994. 60. For this topos in Andalusi Hebrew literature see Brann, 1987: 39-54 and Salvatierra, 2008: 165-8. 61. As Lida de Malquiel points out in her article, Saint Isidore was known for his defence of Biblical poetry and its originality and pre-eminence with respect to pagan letters: Lída de Malkiel, 1952: 341 and ff. 62. For example, Gómez Manrique in his Esclamaçión e querella de la Governaçión talks about Biblical poetry in the same terms (see Gómez-Manrique, 2003: 579-580). For this subject see the article by María Rosa Lida de Malkiel cited previously.
ARTURO PRATS MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 262 and is of greater perfection and authority than loose prose. Isidoro Cartaginés, the holy archbishop of Seville, approves of this notion and gives evidence for it, and states that the first to make rhymes or song in metre was Moses, who in poetry sang and prophesied the coming of the Messiah; and after him, Joshua, in prise of the conquest of Gibeon. David sang in metre his victory over the Philistines and their return of the Ark of the Covenant and all five books of the Psalter. Thus it is that the Hebrews even dare to claim that we cannot feel the taste of its sweetness as well as they do. And Solomon cast his Proverbs in metric form, and certain parts of Job are written in rhyme, especially the words of comfort with which his friends reply to his complaints. 63 In this passage it is almost as if the Marquis of Santillana were challenging Bonafed’s defence of the superiority of the Hebrew language and his ability to read the Bible in its original tongue. Putting to one side this anecdotal reflection, the same justification of the superiority of poetry over prose can be found in another well-known poem by Bonafed, in which he praises the qualities of poetry as the bearer of truth and rejects the claims of the topos of «deceitful» poetry,64 justifying its superior status as a literary form by reference to its Biblical origin and citing exactly the same works as the Marquis of Santillana: In truth, poetry is for man advantage and acquisition, She covers in virtues he who wears her cloaks. If it were not so, would David have been able To call himself «sweet singer»?65 63. Marques de Santillana, 2003, 645: «E, así, faziendo la vía de los stoicos, los quales con grand diligençia inquirieron el orígine e causas de las cosas, me esfuerço a decir el metro ser antes en tiempo e de mayor perfección e más auctoridad que la soluta prosa. Isidoro Cartaginés, santo arçobispo ispalensi, así lo aprueba e testifica, e quiere que el primero que fizo rimos o canto en metro aya seído Moisén, ca en metro cantó e profetizó la venida del Mexías; e, después d´él, Josué, en loor del vencimiento de Gabaón. Davíd cantó en metro la victoria de los Filisteos e la restitución del archa del Testamento e todos los cinco libros del Salterio. E aun por tanto los hebraicos osan afirmar que nosotros no así bien commo ellos podemos sentir el gusto de la su dulçeza. E Salomón metrificados fizo los sus Proverbios, e a çiertas cosas de Job son escriptas en rimo; en especial, las palabras de conorte que sus amigos le respondían a sus vexaçiones». 64. See note 60. 65. 2Samuel 23,1.
A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY BONAFED MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 263 And since the reaches of poetry are so high, We give it the name of «ascensional song». Have those who build songs laboured in vain? Have they invented in vain their elegies and their instruments? 10 In his great wisdom Solomon placed his name In The Song of Songs and the Proverbs, his greatest works. But in Qohelet, in which there are no poetic words, he hid his name and started with his griefs. And when the Rock went out in campaign66 against the Pharaoh, a song was intoned in the midst of his gathering. Deborah pronounced poetic words when Baraq rose up67 like a flash of lightning with his troops. For his poetry was Asaf treated as a prophet, and was added to the Temple of God for the righteousness of his works of praise. 15 And all the books of the prophets have poetic expressions, to such an extent that to the people they seem to be troubadors.68 It is hardly surprising then, that poetry was the vehicle chosen by Bonafed in his effort to re-convert his friends and reinforce his cultural and literary identity. This defence of poetry connects with the desire to tie the present of Bonafed’s Jewish culture to a glorious past less far-off than that of the Bible that could also offer a Parnassus from which to take classic figures who embodied the power of this tradition and united it with the present, such as the figure of Shelomo ibn Gabirol. This was a phenomenon, as we have already seen, which was also taking place in the different Romance literatures of Spain and Italy. The most striking element of the poem, and the one which gives it a certain unity, is the final theological speech. In this part of the poem it might have been logical to expect an antiChristian attack, such as that which appears in the letter and poem addressed to Jordi de Sant Jordi,69 in which Bonafed launches into 66. Judges 5,2. 67. Judges 5,12. 68. Poem zekhor ha-shir, fol. 33r-34v. Ms. Oxoniense Mich 1984. Published in Kaminka, 1928: 35-38. verses 6-16. 69. The letter was edited in Talmage, 1979: 337-364. The poem has been published in Gross, 1993: 49-50.
ARTURO PRATS MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 264 polemics casting doubt on Christian principles like the incarnation of God in his son, the coming of the Messiah, the sacrifice of the son as the redeemer of mankind etc. However, in this poem what we find is an enumeration, which is almost a literal reproduction of that which appears in the Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides, of the different qualities of God. This can be understood from a polemical point of view, but a priori does not seem to represent an attack on Christianity, and is, rather, a theological reflection concerning God. What we have, therefore, is a final section in which God is explained in Maimonidean or rationalistic terms, but without making reference to the thorniest anti-Christan apologetical arguments which are usually present in polemical texts, such as the holy trinity or the fulfilment or otherwise of the prediction of the coming of the Messiah. It is clear that many of these points enumerated by Bonafed can be interpreted in a polemical way, but they can also be seen as simply the declaration of faith of a moderate rationalist, like Bonafed, to another, like Gonzalo ben Labi. They work as a bridge between the two men. Bonafed does not want to engage in argument with a Christian, but to come to an agreement with a converso on an idea of God which united them and a common culture which also united them, as represented by Maimonides and Shelomo ibn Gabirol. The whole of Bonafed’s poem is a precise piece of equipment which seeks to achieve the effect of a re-conversion, or an affirmation of common Hispano-Hebrew culture. Each and every part of the poem, and all of them taken together, work perfectly to produce this planned effect on the converso Gonzalo ibn Labi, who is the man who must put it into operation simply by reading it. But this was not to come about in an isolated cultural framework. All of its many elements situate this type of literature in the period in which it was written and in the cultural context of the surrounding social majority. The poem recovers elements of Andalusi poetry and reshapes them, including elements from its own time and from the majority culture in which it was born, the culture of the kingdom of Aragon during the first half of the 15th century, with all its complexities and particularities. This culture was by no means alien to the poet or his poetry. Bonafed is a neo-Andalusi Aragonese poet of the 15th century and he has to be read within the parameters of his own time and not those of 11th century Andalusi literature.
A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY BONAFED MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 265 ANNEX I [1] During the few days that I lived among those weak Jews70 of Zaragoza, they, with their wiles,71 made the metal statue of a calf72 and changed their glory into the image of an ox,73 a trickster, a despised being who is rejected by all men74 called Yosef Yešua‘, may the Lord separate him unto evil!75 He has come from Sicily and is ignorant of the way76 in which the light of knowledge is parted.77 However, the people who walk in darkness78 honour him with their silver and their gold. They err in vision79 and they have appointed him as their leader. When I realised that in the end there would be bitterness,80 I left from among them,81 for all those who go to him82 flee from the presence of the Lord.83 After I had settled in the town of Belchite, the Lord my God brought to me84 a poem more precious than gold, fine gold85 which was composed by the wise man R. Šelomo ibn Gabirol, in which he scorns this evil congregation,86 for in those far-off days87 they persecuted him and trod him down in his place of rest.88 The 70. Nehemiah 3,34. 71. Numbers 25,18. 72. See Exodus 32,4...etc. 73. Psalms 106,20. 74. Isaiah 53,3. There are two interpretations of this expression. David Qimi says that it means: «he was less than a man», or the meaning of «he left men» is that «they did not want to have contact with him». 75. See Deuteronomy 29,20. 76. Also «path» or «trail». 77. Job 38,24. 78. Isaiah 9,1. 79. Isaiah 28,7. 80. 2Samuel 2,26. 81. In the Bible this expression is usually related to the idea of fleeing from an impious people, like those of Egypt or Babylon (cf. commentary by Ibn Ezra on Psalms 136,11): «and I left from among them: from Egypt». 82. 1Samuel 26,19. 83. Jonah 1,10. 84. Genesis 27,20. 85. Proverbs 8,19. 86. Numbers 14,35. 87. Literally «in the old days». 88. Judges 20,43. There are several interpretations of this, almost all of which coincide in understanding that menuah goes with a particle, either «be» or «me», since the meaning is otherwise not clear. Some commentators, such as Raši, have thought the verb means «catching or trapping», whereas others, like David Qimi, believe it means «tread», or allude to the translation of the Targum of Yonatan, where it is translated as
ARTURO PRATS MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 266 poem begins thus: «My throat is dry from crying out».89 Then I awoke and said to myself: «I will also do the same with their malevolence and the malevolence of the souls of these sinners,90 I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel».91 I composed this poem in the very image of its metre92 and I sent it to the wise man Gonzalo ibn Labi’, may God protect him. I intoned my song and I said: [2] My desire is to bury my toil in my bosom93 and my quill in the inkwell.94 [The quill]95 will spread its wings towards the East, carrying southward my poem. Full of wrath it will call out the sin of a people lost96 through the fault of an evil shepherd. It will proclaim my outrage and my anger, ignoring97 my prudence and my good sense. 5 And I said thus: Silence, my nightingale! Why are you to play my flute? And it ceased to instruct in the relief of my suffering.98 What have I to do with joy? Who from among the saints of the world understands my verses and my metre? Must I awaken the dead so that they see my outrage and my torment? If the sea of my deprivations grows rough, my Rock is my refuge and my fortress. 10 If the night of my anguish grows long, my Light will guide me on the way. tarad, «to bother». Others interpret both verbs as coercitative, encouraging others to carry out the action i.e. «inciting others to pursue him and inciting them to tread on him and trap him». 89. Niar be-qor’i geroni; published in Schirmann, 1956: I, 207-210. 90. Numbers 17,3. 91. Genesis 49,7. 92. It also uses he same ryhme scheme as Ibn Gabirol’s poem. 93. Job 31,33. 94. Literally «my inkwell». 95. The quill, after being dipped in the ink, will become Bonafed’s messenger. 96. «Errant» and «lost», in the sense of «being wrong». 97. Literally «refuse permission» o «annul». 98. The nightingale of his poetry stopped singing i.e. Bonafed stopped writing.
A LETTER TO GONZALO DE LA CABALLERÍA BY BONAFED MEAH, sección Hebreo 59 (2010), 243-278 267 At dawn my Lord will send his mercy and I will forget yesterday. For a short time more I will bear the yoke of the evil ones. I trust in the salvation of my Creator. He will raise his voice and dissolve them, He will disperse the cloud of my obscurity. In this manner I spoke, unable to sleep and alone in the night,99 15 until my heart told me that my voice was being heard.100 My voice is that of Mošeh, my friend, and my eyes those of Labi, my noble lord. Labi is the father of all pleasurable things, he appreciates and knows my robe.101 Although exile102 has separated us and it has moved my landmark, it is towards him (Labi), in imagination and with desire, that I will run103 with my letter.104 20 Without him, do I have in the world anything That will cure my wound? While I spoke, there appeared ben Gabirol before me, powerful and awesome like an archangel, he rose up and stood before me, and with a sword in his hand and a bolt of lightning coming out of his mouth he wandered through my tent. 99. Literally «my night». 100. Bonafed’s heart tells him that there is someone who listens to him. Literally «my voice has listeners». 101. See Genesis 38, 18 and 25. This is an item of clothing, the one which Judá left Tamar as a pledge. Commentators have agreed it must be related to the iiyot because of the ptil tkelet. 102. Bonafed considers Gonzalo’s conversion to be an «exile» and that there is therefore hope of a «return». 103. Literally «I will run with the race of my letter». 104. The Hebrew term gelil has several meanings. Schirmann proposes translating it as the circular orbits of the planets: «I run towards him as the planets run turning in circles», but it could relate to the letter the poet is writing. On numerous occasions Bonafed refers to letters as megilah and the term gelil derives from the same root and also means «roll».
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