Paul Paun was a Romanian visual artist and poet, involved with the surrealism movement of the 1930s. Born Zaharia Herscovici, Paun adopted his pseudonym in high school. He was active in the avant-garde art scene from his midteens, cofounding the Bucharest Surrealist group in 1939; he exhibited with them in the 1940s. Alongside his creative activities, Paun was a practicing doctor. He was forced to work in labor camps for Russian prisoners of war. From 1948 to 1961, Paun struggled to leave Romania for Israel, finally moving to Haifa. In Israel, Paun continued practicing medicine and honing his skills as a draftsman.
On the Lord’s hills, white with lustrous light,
Far from rich palaces reeking of wine,
Drunk on the night and sidereal sadness,
The King dreams in self-imposed exile.
Below, mid the wheat, the…
Leonore (Rachel) de Alvaro da Costa (1669–1749), the second wife of Don Francisco Lopes Suasso, was descended from a wealthy Portuguese New Christian family who fled the Iberian Peninsula and settled…
Hanging her corals on the night she leaves
silent, possessing nothing.
A moon dives, a splash extinguished
in a wall of water.
Alone, just herself, the path
blown clean with white godhead
twists…