Edmond Jabès, the poetry of the nomad

the long version

The Poetry of the Nomad is a unique attempt to write a nomad's poetry, to encounter both desert and book, to speak and to be silent toward the divine. The poet accepts and denies the divine. His conversations are heard and not heard. Words designate and transfigure their designations. Men listen and they understand, but understanding is the beginning of nonunderstanding. This is a dialogue of a nomad, a wandering dialogue, one that is in the book and beyond it.