Micah Joseph Lebensohn

Micha Joseph Lebensohn was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. His father was the poet Avraham Dov Ber Lebensohn (pen name Adam). He began to translate and write poetry in Hebrew when he was very young. He suffered from Tuberculosis for most of his life. In 1849 he went to Berlin, and later Salzbrunn, seeking relief. In 1850, he returned to Vilna, where he lived until his death.

Michal's poetical works are: Harisot Troya (Vilna, 1849; 2d ed., ib. 1869), a translation of the third and fourth books of Virgil's Aeneid after Schiller's German translation; Shiray Bat Ẓiyyon (ib. 1851; 2d ed., ib. 1869), epic poems on Jewish subjects, of which his brother-in-law, Joshua Steinberg, published a German translation entitled Gesänge Zion's (ib. 1859); and Kinnor Bat Ẓiyyon (ib. 1870), a second volume of the foregoing poems, printed posthumously by his father.

The most noted elegies on his death are that by his father, entitled Mikal Dim'ah (in the second part of Shiray Sefat Ḳodesh) and J. L. Gordon's allegorical drama, Ho Aḥ, which is placed in the first part of Kol Shiray Yehudah.

Michal's poetry is characterized by pathos, a strong longing for life and dread of early death.

• Hebrew literature

• Brainin, in Ost und West, ii. No. 4
• Der Jud (Cracow), iv. No. 15
• Salomon Mandelkern, in Ha-Asif, iii. 425–429
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Missing or empty |title= (help)