Тайные песни [Secret Songs], by E. Lisheva [Elisheva]. Moscow: Гацида [Hatzida], 1919. Russian. First edition.
"Secret Songs", a collection of poems by the poet Elisheva. The last poem of the collection is "Eretz-Israel".
Elisheva (Elizaveta Ivanovna Zhirkov-Bikhovski, 1888-1949) was born in Russia to a Christian family. In her youth she became interested in Jewish culture and studied Hebrew and Yiddish. Later, she translated poetry in both languages into Russian. Many of the poems she wrote at the beginning of her career expressed her longing for Jewish culture. Several of them were published in 1919 in two books – the one before us and another titled "Minutes". In 1920, she wrote her first Hebrew poem and later adopted Hebrew as the sole language of her works. In 1925, she immigrated to Palestine with her husband, the publisher and journalist Shimon Bikhovski. In Palestine, she published Hebrew poems (original and translated) and for several years met with success in the world of poetry and literature. Among others, literary events were organized in her honor in Palestine and abroad. In 1932, after her husband's death, she found it difficult to earn a living and fell into absolute poverty. Elisheva died in 1949 in Tiberius. Since she never converted to Judaism, difficulties arose as to burying her in a Jewish cemetery. Only after the intervention of the chairman of the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel, Avraham Broides, it was agreed that she could be buried in the cemetery of Kvutzat Kinneret, near the grave of the poet Rachel.
16pp, 15 cm. Good condition. Some pages unopened. A few stains and creases. A tear to the front cover, reinforced with tape. Minor blemishes to the margins of the cover and tears to the spine.