A smart little light

UNTIL FIVE, Bar Sagi knew only one word of English – “pizza”. But accompanying her parents on post-doc in America she soon picked up the language, becoming a voracious reader. On return to Israel, she was diagnosed with bone cancer, yet from 13 she wrote her autobiography, two novels, 25 poems, and about 12 short stories. At 15, she died. “She was very talented, very precocious,” says her grandfather, Anthony Joseph, who will share excerpts from Sagi’s writing and screen a video based on one of her poems at Jewish Book Week on February 27.

Sagi’s novels, Yasmin’s Beginning and Back to Atlantis, are magical fantasies for ages 12 to 15 (available to buy online). Notably, they contain, says Joseph, astute allegories of our troubles in the Middle East.

Her poetry, for ages 16 up, suffered from its eventual publisher going out of business — so Joseph hopes to find it a new publisher, maybe at Jewish Book Week, where he will also have copies of the collected poems for sale.

“As a mathematician, I’d like to feel that people would cherish my work after I die,” he says. “Anne Frank thanked God for having given her the gift of writing so she might live on after death — and I think this must be true of Bar.” Anthony and his wife Denise have established a prize for young poets in Sagi’s name through Voices Israel. Bar is also commemorated in prizes at Tel Aviv and Bar Ilan universities.

Sagi’s poems have an eloquent clarity, especially those concerning cancer. In I See You, Bar imagines herself looking up from the grave at those who are still alive and wondering if they remember her. In Hope, her last poem, Bar presents a perfectly judged series of delicate images – “a small flower blooming in my chest/Growing and growing”; “a child…/ Bundled up against a winter storm”; “a smart little light, in a small café”.

Anthony and Denise are resolved not to let Sagi’s light fade.