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PAR.TISAN R.EVIEW
the spirit's workings. The earlier book focused on how local conditions
shaped sensibility; now, in
PYOIlliscd Lallds,
Sacks steps from the local to–
ward the visionary. But for all his mystic craving, he is brought back to
earth by thc inescapable histories of South Africa and of the Jews . Each
history exerts great pressure on Sacks's imagination.
In
relation to his Judaism, the poet has steeped himself in Jewish mys–
ticism and Jcwish Law. 13ut he can connect with this lore only by submit–
ting it to an almost savagc, at times despairing, scrutiny. In the case of
Law, his humanity is outragcd by the Law's questionable origins : The
Law declares the need of sacrifice, but sacrifice is also butchery . And in
the case of mysticism, he draws back from the violent excess of the martyr
whose mortified or tortured flesh is recompensed by visions. This revul–
sion from Law and mysticism in part inspires poems like "Cacsarea"; but
Sacks's desire for absolutc knowledge, which the Law and the teachings of
thc mystic promise, draws him into uneasy sympathy with what hc seems
to deplore.
In "Caesarea" the poet contrasts a contemporary pilgrim, his "weak
voice lifting to the wind/ some Illilky song ofJesus," with the martyrdom
of Eleazar who "saw as hc was nailed to the ground/ the souls of thc righ–
teous cleansing/ / in thc watcrs ofShiloah, preparing/ for Akiba 's teaching
in the seventh palacc/ to which even the angels brought their chairs."
This passage, which begins with the gruesollle martyrdom and ends with
a homely and triumphant evocation of the angels receiving human in–
struction from Eleazar's fellow martyr, Akiba , hints at how conflicted
Sacks is about his visionary sources. This comes clear in the poem's final
stanzas; after Eleazar's martyrdom and visiollary fulfillment, Sacks ques–
tions whether the vision isn't simply compcnsatory, an attempt to lend
dignity to pointless suffering:
- As who would not believe)
Or wish to - even the "decaying scribe,"
so-called already in Akiba 's time,
who sitting in the warm sea wind
that will not purify, however hard
it blows against these stones,
rewrites or cancels yet another
passage of the Law -
something of sacrifice, or daily butchery:
