Background
Lensky was born in the Belarusian town of Slonim and lived in Derechin, Leningrad, and elsewhere.
Lensky was born in the Belarusian town of Slonim and lived in Derechin, Leningrad, and elsewhere.
He wrote the bulk of his verse while imprisoned in several Soviet labor camps from 1934 onward. He was one of few Russian Jewish poets to write in Hebrew. Lensky"s poems reflect the realities of the camps in which he was imprisoned, the Russian landscape, and literature in a variety of languages and national traditions.
A few of Lensky"s poems were published in Israel during his lifetime, and were first collected there under the title Beyond the River Lethe in 1960.