ANATOLI BAR YOSEF

(c. 1130?–c. 1213)

Although he spent the majority of his life outside Provence, ANATOLI BAR YOSEF is considered the first of the properly Provençal Spanish-Hebrew poets. He is also a major contributor to the southern extension of the Andalusian school of poetry into the mid-Mediterranean. Born in Marseille and, it seems, raised there, Ana-toli lived for a considerable period of time in Lunel, where he became known as an outstanding scholar and serious poet. For reasons that remain elusive, at some point in his life Anatoli decided to leave Provence and make his way to Egypt. As was customary for travelers sailing from Marseille, he stopped along the way in Norman (and still Arabized) Sicily, staying most of the time in Palermo, Maz-zara, Termini, and Messina. Many of his extant poems were either written while in Sicily or derive in one way or another from his stay on the island, which had an ancient Jewish community whose members were well-versed in Spanish-Hebrew culture. They welcomed Anatoli and embraced him for his learning. How long he remained in Sicily we do not know, but the attachments he formed there were strong. He engaged in poetic correspondence with many of the island’s leading men of letters, and Sicilians were still writing to him to inquire about halakhic matters after he reached Egypt (c. 1190), where he served as a judge on the religious court of Alexandria. Anatoli’s poems are entirely Spanish in character and evince the direct influence of the period’s Andalusian masters. “The Test of Poetry,” for example, echoes HaNagid’s “The Critique” (above). On the whole, Anatoli’s poems are well crafted and compelling in their way, even if they lack both the power and surprise of work by the major poets.

THE TEST OF POETRY

MOTTO