Editor's Note:  The Author and the Subject

In addition to being a profound and formally compelling poet, Dr. Lea Tanzman z"l had a lifelong interest in literary criticism and psychology.  One expression of this interest is her study, Killing Will: The Doctor Fitterman Syndrome.

Dr. Fitterman was a personal friend of Dr. Tanzman, whom I had the privilege of meeting at her home.  After his passing both she and I were moved to write about him.  I wrote the following sonnet:

IN MEMORIAM MENACHEM FITTERMAN 

He never told the same tale, twice, although

He=d tell them by the dozen and the score,

On Sabbath noons nothing could stop the flow,

And he would still be talking at the door

Of things he=d had to witness and endure

From the moment when Abaddon=s engine

Sucked him up in Poland, till the hour

It spat him forth from China; and between.

An Odyssey that never found a form

His talk was. I am left with just this sense

Of one vast story, moving, wider than the steppes,

And his eyes= gleam, like a candle in the storm.

That stream of speech has found the sea at last B

O Rabbi! we have heard you; may you rest.

And Dr. Tanzman wrote:

DE PROFUNDIS

                             to Dr. M.M. Fitterman

 

We had come               to Psalm 130

I stood                         in the shade

 

photographing

now       and

then

praying     faster    than      the others

 

finally                him

that is         the parcel          with            his name

Evidently, at that moment she could not bring herself to portray him "objectively."  But his personality and fate continued to haunt her, producing the study that is before us.  It is my privilege to present this work, as a memorial to two unforgettable friends.-- Esther Cameron