AVRAHAM HABEDERSHI

(mid-thirteenth century–after 1290)

Born to a prosperous, well-established family in the Provençal town of Beziers (the medieval name of which was Bedris), AVRAHAM HABEDERSHI was raised in the home of his wealthy grandfather. When the grandfather died, the young Avraham moved to Perpignan—at the time part of Aragon—where he was educated and went on to work in finance and moneylending. He was also a professional letter writer, known for his flowery style. His financial success allowed him to establish himself in Perpignan as a literary patron and arbiter of poetic taste, someone who determined which poets received support and which did not. Bestowal of that support, of course, was contingent upon acknowledgement of HaBedershi’s superior literary gifts, and he has many poems and epistolary works attacking writers who challenged him. At times these literary wars involved “staged” contests between friends, like the Provençal tenso, but at other times the line was crossed and real animosity took hold.

HaBedershi’s first work addressed the confiscation of Jewish books that was ordered in Aragon in the wake of the Disputation at Barcelona. In 1275 he met with Jewish members of Alfonso X’s papal delegation, as it passed through Per-pignan, and he made a particularly strong impression upon the Jewish dignitary Todros Ben Yosef HaLevi Abulafia (not the poet in this anthology); the two engaged in literary contests and exchanged many poems, including parodies of both the Passover Haggada and somber liturgical hymns. In 1285, as part of a larger attack on the kingdom of Aragon, much of Aragonese southern France was overrun by the French king Philip III and his son (Philip IV), and the Jewish community suffered heavy losses. Suddenly impoverished and friendless, HaBedershi fled to Narbonne; there, between 1285 and 1290, he composed his longest and most complicated work, Herev HaMithappekhet (The Revolving Sword), the second half of which incorporates a “lament for the makers,” among whom he counts the Provençal poets Peire Cardenal and Folquet de Marseille. (HaBedershi knew no Arabic and was apparently unfamiliar with its literature.) No more is known about HaBedershi’s life, except that he had three sons. Two died while he was alive; the third, Yedaya, went on to become an important Hebrew poet as well (see Yedaya HaPenini, below).

HaBedershi’s poetry is, on the whole, mannered and tedious, though at its best it can be quite forceful. His most focused work was written in the context of his poetic battle with Yitzhaq HaGorni, a competition that gave full expression to his combative nature. While it is impossible to get to the bottom of HaBedershi’s quarrel with his younger rival, since we have only HaBedershi’s side of the exchange, all indications are that the hostility between the two poets was real, and not part of the roles played in a literary correspondence. As the editor of HaBedershi’s poems tells it, HaGorni, most likely having failed to find support elsewhere, arrived in Perpignan and sent HaBedershi an endless stream of poems, hoping to gain his favor. In some of these poems, however, HaGorni’s boasts appear to spill over into a direct challenge to HaBedershi’s literary supremacy. At first, HaBedershi refrained from engaging the desperate HaGorni, but in time he sent him a few lines of verse out of pity. The exchange soon heated up. Eventually HaGorni surrendered to the banker-poet, and HaBedershi softened and sent HaGorni some money to keep him going; but that, it seems, just made matters worse. The first three epigrams translated here register the development of their quarrel, with HaBedershi ratcheting up the level of sarcasm in his replies.

WHY THE POET REFUSES TO FIGHT

YOUR MUSE

LAMENT FOR A FOE

THE POET’S DISTRESS