The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1922-04-14
THE AMERICAN JEWISH World
The Voice Of Suffering

art had fallen at the beginning of
the war, revival manifests itself.
The irresistible song of the soul vi
brates with suffering. Man is not
only as he boasts, an animal that
reasons (rather unreasonably), he is
an animal that sings; he can no more
exist without song than without bread.
The actual proofs are Forthcoming.
Although the general lack of free
dom in Europe deprives us without
doubt of the most profound music, of
the truest confessions, we hear great
voices rising in all countries. Some,
on returning from the armies, give US
a lugubrious epic, like Henri Barbusse
in "Le Ecu" and Andreas Latzko in his
heartrending stories "Menschen i'm
Krieg" Others express the sorrow
they stayed behind, witnessed the
butchery without taking part in it,
and not having been active, are so
much more given to torments of
thought. Such are the passionate
poems of Marcel Martinez (Les Temps
Maudits) and P. J. Jouve; "Vous etes
des Hommes, poemes contre lie grand
derime" and especially his admirable
"Danse des Morris" Less sensitive to
suffering and more eager to under
stand, the British novelists, H. G.
Wells in "Mr. Brittling Sees 1t
Through" and Douglas Goldring in
"The Fortune" analyze faithfully the
painful errors by which they are sur
rounded and from which they cannot
escape.
Still others, taking refuge in the
panorama Of the past, find in it the
same circle Of evils and of hopes-the
eternal return. They transpose their
grief into world Of the past and en-
noble it and free it from it's poisonous
sting. From the height Of the CEN
turtles, the soul liberated by art, con-
templates sorrow as in dream; and
no longer knows it is present or past.
Stefan Zwieg's Jeremiah" is the
most beautiful example that know
of, this sublime melancholy which
sees beyond the bloody drama of to-
day the eternal tragedy Of humanity.
Not without struggle does one ar
rive at such serene heights. A friend
of Zwieg before the war, I have re-
NAMED his friend and have witnessed
the suffering Of this free European
SplIlC, Ill WuOH LIlc wal OSotIOyCu
what was dearest to him-his human
and artistic creed-whom it deprived
of all sense of living. The letters
which I received during the first year
of the war unveil with tragic beauty
his. terrible despair. But little by lit
tie the immensely of the catastrophe
and communion with the universal dis
tress brought to his soul that calm
which accepts fate, because fate leads
to God, who is the union of all souls.
Israelite by origin, Zweig sought his
inspiration in the Bible. He had no
difficulty in finding parallels of the
mental unbalancing of a people, of the
crumbling of empires, of heroic patti
ence. One figure especially attracted
him; that of the great forerunner, the
wronged prophet of the peace that
blossoms on ruins: jeremiah.
He devoted to him dramatic poem
of which am giving a review with
copious extracts. Nine scenes in a
prose mixed with free or regular
verse, as passions exalts or masters
itself The form is broad and ora
torical. The development of the
thought, majestically balanced, would
perhaps gain by abridgements, which