Born in Rumania in 1930, Dan Pagis survived three years in a concentration camp before arriving in Israel in 1946. He now lives in Jerusalem, where he is a professor of medieval Hebrew literature at Hebrew University. As a scholar, Pagis has established himself by publishing distinguished editions of medieval Hebrew poetry. One of the leading poets of this generation, he has mastered and applied the tools of textual criticism to medieval Hebrew poetry. The mastery of the idiom shows itself in his own poems that echo the poets of Spain's Golden Age, such as Judah Ha-Levi, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, and Moses Ibn Ezra. The Holocaust is the outstanding influence in his work.