What Does Bashert Really Mean?

An analysis of Irena Klepfisz's poem "Bashert"

Bashert is a Yiddish term meaning to be predestined, fated, inevitable, randomly selected to live or die or sole mate. This is used as the title for two smaller poems entitled "These words are dedicated to those who died" and "these words are dedicated to those who survived."

Irena Klepfisz a Jewish feminist poet who wrote as a form of remembrance and activism. Klepfisz born in April 1941 in the Warsaw Ghetto, draws inspiration and evidence for her political activism through her traumatic childhood. her poems are a way of defining and expanding upon that through definition of actions. "Bashert" is featuring in the World War II section of Against Forgetting:Twentieth century Poetry for Witness by Carolyn Forche, is dedicated as being "for those who died and those who survived." The dedication of this anthology mirrors the dedication of Klepfisz's poems, as they are all encompassing. The fact that "Bashert" is featured in the World War II section allows the reader to draw the conclusion that it is a reflection or comment on the events of or aftermath of the Holocaust. 

Nancy J. Peterson author of Against Amnesia, Contemporary Women Writers and the Crises of Historical Memory wrote that Klepfisz witnessed the death of her father during the Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 (Peterson). The Norton Anthology on Jewish American Literature by Jules Chametcky noted that after his death, Klepfisz and her mother escaped to the Polish countryside and were hidden through World War II by non-Jewish peasants, before moving to the United States in 1949.Klepfisz's mother taught her only Polish as that she could pass of Aryan and escape the concentration camps (Chametcky 181).

"Bashert" is written in third person, with the speaker or poet addressing the reader directly. The speaker is explaining to the audience why specific people deserved to die or live through reasons the speaker sees fit and just. The first section of the poem is "These Words are Dedicated to Those Who Died" and is composed of seven stanzas. It is arranged as a repetitive argument, as each stanza, save for stanza five, begins with the line "These words are dedicated to those who died" (Forche 393). Each line following it starts "because" and then some reason of justification is given. the poem can be seem as justification for the actions resulting in the deaths of the victims being implied by the speaker, a form of survivor's guilt. There is no end rhyme present in the poem; the structure instead has a foothold in repetition and content/argument reinforcement that is common through all stanzas.

The second part of the poem, "These Words are Dedicated to Those Who Survived," is made of five stanzas and again has the same structural patterns, no end rhyme but rather the repetition of the line "These words are dedicated to those who survived" followed by lines beginning with "because" and the speaker's justification. Through both sections of the poem only the word "these" is capitalized. The two sections are separated by the phrase "Bashert" as well as the poem as a whole being completed with it.

The outline of the poem is much like the construction of a Big Mac. "Bashert" is the bottom bun and beginning. "These words are dedicated to those who died" is the first layer of meet cheese lettuce and special sauce. The Phase "Bashert" appears again as the middle bun separating the two sections of meat/cheese/lettuce/ sauce goodness. "These words are dedicated to those who survived" is the second layer of meat/cheese/lettuce and special sauce. Finally the top bun to complete the sandwich is the final phrase "Bashert."

The poem goes full circle concluding in it's opening as well as making two claims and supporting them. This argumentative structure gives rise to the claim of the poem being persuasive. There is no punctuation in the poem whatsoever, enjambment is present yet only forceful between the repetition of the central line for the section of the poem. The reasons for each claim being pushed together as though a list. Each stanza is repeated as: claim, because reason, because reason, because reason, because reason, and so on and so forth.

In the poem the speaker tells the reason for the outcomes of victims of the Holocaust, death and life respectively. The speaker claims those who died did so because they were stubborn and refused to give up/ because they asked for too much." The diction used here implies that will to live and the determination that is usually associated with the victims of the Holocaust, yet there is also a negative connotation used in that the speaker says, "They asked for too much." In the second par of the poem, the speaker claims those who survived did so "because they had no principles..because they were angry. because they could ask/ because they mooched off other and saved their strength." Again the diction here gives a distinctive negative tone in that the survivors lived only because they used others. The idea of the dead asking for too much is in the direct conflict with the reason that those who lived did so "because they could ask." This is justified through the implied political injustices if on has money and/or power one could ask or use others, whereas the average person did no have that choice. it seems as though the speaker is implying that those who survived did so only through the abuse of others and did so unfairly. The speaker holds more pity and sympathy for those who died and implies that whose who lived should not have because they went about it in the wrong manner commenting that those who lived did so "because they were lucky." This could be a comment on the unfair death of Klepfisz's father. The speaker does not that those who died are not without blame in that "because they were stubborn," suggesting that their stubbornness was unwillingness cost them their lives in the end, another example of Klepfisz's implied survivor's guilt.

Klepfisz makes note of God in "Bashert" in that those who died did so "because they left things to God" and those who survived did so "because they too had faith and trusted God." This implies that God is the one to make the final call on who lives and dies according to His will. Her final stanzas in both sections of the poem, offering closure to the argument presented in the sections, death and life respectively. In "These words are dedicated to those who died" she closes speaking about death as a punishment, reward, final rest and final rage. This oxymoron phrasing makes the reader pause and think that death is a way of peace and relief yet brought about because of the actions of those who died. In the same way Klepfisz ends "These words are dedicated to those who survived" calling life a wilderness and [those who survived] savage, life flowering and those living blossoms and life a gift and those who survived "free to accept it." The idea that of the life imagery as positive shows that the speaker does value life over death seeing its profit. The idea of the people being :"free to accept" the fist implies that those who died were not free to accept the gift, and could conclude that this is a religious reference to Jesus Christ and the spiritual gift of salvation because it deals in free will and freedom of second life, an interesting metaphor when remembering that Klepfisz is Jewish and does not embrace Jesus as the Christ. 

This freedom imagery is also important because it is in reference to the holocaust and the freedom from the oppression and judgment of those who were not of the Jewish faith. Viewing this poem as one of Klepfisz's political works it is important to note her belief that there is no need for a Holocaust to justify political action. She claims that mass genocide is not required to bring about the attention of the world of suffering individuals but this far that is what it has taken and she is working to charge that through her writing.