"Of course it is. Still, dreaming is no crime, either."
"Ah, that"s another kind of dreaming. Do you write?"
"Oh no," I said, with a laugh. "I am just a prosaic business man."
And by way of showing that I was not, I veered the conversation back to his poetry.
I sought to impress him with a sense of my deep and critical appreciation of what I had read in his three volumes. I spoke enthusiastically of most of it, but took exception to the basic idea in a poem on Job and Solomon
"It"s fine as poetry," I said. "Some lines in it are perfectly beautiful.
But the parallel is not convincing."
"Why not?" he said, bristling up.
We locked horns. He was pugnacious, bitter, but ineffectual. He quoted Hebrew, he spoke partly in Yiddish and partly in English; he repeatedly used the words "subjective" and "objective"; he dwelt on Job"s "obvious tragedy" and Solomon"s "inner sadness,"
but he was a poor talker and apparently displeased with his own argument
"Oh, I don"t make myself clear," he said, in despair
"But you do," I rea.s.sured him. "I understand you perfectly."
"No, you don"t. You"re only saying it to please me. But then what matters it whether a business agent has a correct conception of Solomon"s psychology or not?" he said, bitterly. "Seriously, Mr.
Levinsky, I am often out of sorts with myself for hanging around this cafe. This is the gathering-place of talent, not of business agents."
"Why? Why?" I tried to console him. "I am sure you have more talent than all of them put together. Do you think anybody in this cafe could write verse or prose like yours?"
He looked down, his features hardening into a frown. "Anyhow, I cannot afford the time. While I loiter here I am liable to miss a customer. I must give myself entirely to my business, entirely, entirely--every bit of myself. I must forget I ever did any scribbling." "You are taking it too hard, Mr. Tevkin. One can attend to business and yet find time for writing."
All at once he brightened up bashfully and took to reciting a Hebrew poem.
Here is the essence of it: "Since the destruction of the Temple instrumental music has been forbidden in the synagogues. The Children of Israel are in mourning. They are in exile and in mourning. Silent is their harp. So is mine. I am in exile. I am in a strange land. My harp is silent." "Is it your poem?" I asked.
He nodded bashfully
"When did you compose it?"
"A few weeks ago."
"Has it been printed?" He shook his head
"Why?"
"I could have it printed in a Hebrew weekly we publish here, but--well, I did not care to."
"You mean The Pen?"
"Yes. Do you see it sometimes?"
"I did, once. I am going to subscribe for it. Anyhow, the poem belies itself. It shows that your harp has not fallen silent."
He smiled, flushed with satisfaction, like a shy schoolboy, and proceeded to recite another Hebrew poem: "Most song-birds do not sing in captivity. I was once a song-bird, but America is my cage. It is not my home. My song is gone."
"This poem, too, gives itself the lie!" I declared. "But the idea of America being likened to a prison!"
"It is of my soul I speak," he said, resentfully. "Russia did not imprison it, did it? Russia is a better country than America, anyhow, even if she is oppressed by a czar. It"s a freer country, too--for the spirit, at least.
There is more poetry there, more music, more feeling, even if our people do suffer appalling persecution. The Russian people are really a warm-hearted people. Besides, one enjoys life in Russia better than here. Oh, a thousand times better. There is too much materialism here, too much hurry and too much prose, and--yes, too much machinery. It"s all very well to make shoes or bread by machinery, but alas! the things of the spirit, too, seem to be machine-made in America. If my younger children were not so attached to this country and did not love it so, and if I could make a living in Russia now, I should be ready to go back at once."
""Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your G.o.d,"" I quoted, gaily.
"It"s all a matter of mood. Poets are men of moods." And again I quoted, ""Attend unto me, O my friend, and give ear unto me, O my comrade."" I took up the cudgels for America
He listened gloomily, leaving my arguments unanswered. By way of broaching the subject of his daughter I steered my talk to a point that gave me a chance to refer to his little "meditation," "My Children." "How well you do remember my poor little volumes,"
he said, greatly flattered. "Yes, "My children love me." They are not children, but angels.
And yet--G.o.d save me from having to be supported by them. They bring in a considerable sum at the end of the week, and they hate to see me work or worry. But, oh, how sweet it is to earn one"s own living! Thank G.o.d, I do earn my share and my wife"s. My children are bitterly opposed to it. They beg me to stay home, but I say: "No, children mine! As long as your father can earn his bread, his bread he will earn." That"s why my humdrum occupation is so sweet to me." At this he lowered his eyes and said, with the embarra.s.sed simper which seemed to accompany every remark of his that implied self-appreciation, "I wrote something on this subject the other day, just a line or two: "There are instances when the jewel of poetry glints out of the prose of trade.""
The fact that his children contributed to the maintenance of the family nest was evidently a sore spot in his heart
His face, sensitive and mobile in the extreme, was like a cinematographic film. It recorded the subtlest change in his mood.
The notion of its being a commonplace face seemed to me absurd now. It was a different image almost every minute, and my mental portrait of it was as unlike my first impression of it as a motion picture is unlike any of its component photographs
I parted from him without referring to his daughter, but I felt that I had won his heart, and it seemed to be a matter of days when he would invite me to his house
The next time I saw him, on an afternoon at Yampolsky"s cafe again, there was an elusive deference in his demeanor. He seemed to me more reserved and ill at ease than he had been on the previous occasion. Finally he said, "I had no idea you were David Levinsky, the cloak-manufacturer."
My vanity was so flattered that I was unable to restrain my face from betraying it. I answered, with a beaming smile, "I told you I was in the cloak business, didn"t I?"
"I don"t think you did. Anyhow, I did not know what kind of a cloak-factory yours was," he said
"What kind do you mean?" I laughed.
"Well, I am glad to know you are so successful. There was somebody who recognized you last time you were here. Your secret leaked out."
"Secret! Well, what difference does it all make? To possess a talent like yours is a far greater success than to own a factory, even if mine were the largest in the world."
He waved his hand deprecatingly
Our conversation was disturbed by a quarrel between two men at a near-by table. I was at a loss to make out what it was all about.
Tevkin attempted to enlighten me, but I listened to him only partly, being interested in the darts of the two belligerents. All I could gather was that they were story-writers of two opposing schools. I felt, however, that their hostility was based upon professional jealousy rather than upon a divergence of artistic ideals
Finally one of them paid his check and departed. Tevkin told me more about them. He spoke of the one who stayed in the cafe with admiration. "He"s a real artist; some of his stories are perfect gems," he said. "He"s a good fellow, too. Only he thinks too much of himself. But then perhaps this is an inevitable part of talent, the shadow that is inseparable from the light of genius."
"Perhaps it"s the engine that sets it in motion, gives it incentive."
"Perhaps. I wish I had some of it." I reflected that he did seem to have some of "it." At all events, he did not seem to begrudge others their success. He spoke of the other people in the cafe with singular good-will, and even enthusiasm, in fact
Some of the people present I had seen on my previous visit. Of the others Tevkin pointed out a man to me who knew six languages well and had a working acquaintance with several more; another who had published an excellent Hebrew translation of some of the English poets, and a third whose son, a young violinist, "had taken Europe by storm."