Israel in Translation

Hedva Harechavi is an early feminist voice in contemporary Hebrew poetry, and, as you will hear, her work often combines the language of prayer and biblical texts with contemporary daily realities.

Her first book, Because He Is King, won the Rachel Newman Poetry Award and established her as a poet. Harechavi's eight subsequent poetry collections have won all the major Israeli prizes.

She was born on the kibbutz Degania, and lives in Jerusalem.

Text: Hedva Harechavi, "A Very Cheerful Girl" translated by Tsipi Keller in Poets on the Edge. An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry, SUNY 2008.

Hedva Harechavi, "All of Reality to Me" translated by Tsipi Keller, Asymptote Journal

This podcast is dedicated to anyone who has trouble finding shoes that fit—especially boots, during the Israeli rainy season! On this episode, Marcela reads an excerpt from Raquel Chalfi's poem German Boot, translated by Tsipi Keller.

Text:

German Boot" by Raquel Chalfi. Poets on the Edge. An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry. Selected and translated by Tsipi Keller. SUNY Press, 2008.

Previous Chalfi podcast

Tonight is the fourth night of Hanukkah, and to celebrate, Marcela reads an abridgement from Mendele Mokher Serforim's short story, "What is Chanukah?" It features two speakers, Shmuel, for whom a Hanukkah miracle occurred, and his friend Ignatz.

Text:

Mendele Mokher Serforim, "What is Chanukah?" translated by Herbert J. Levine and Reena Spicehandler in Jewish Fiction

Yitzi Hurwitz, "To Make the Darkness Itself Shine"

Music:

Maoz Tzur by Yosef Karduner

Al Hanissim by Yonina

Here's a little love poem for you, by Ory Bernstein, who is responsible for some of the loveliest love poetry written in Hebrew. It's from A One and Only Love, which was translated by Bernstein himself.

Text:

Ory Bernstein, A One and Only Love, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2002.

Raquel Chalfi, Ory Bernstein, Shimon Adaf, Kaleidoscope: Three Poets from Israel, Mosaic Press 2014.

Last week we heard the first part of this two-part podcast featuring Shimon Adaf in his and Lavie Tidhar's 2016 multigenre collaboration Art & War: Poetry, Pulp and Politics in Israeli Fiction. This week we feature Lavie Tidhar.

The book is a dialogue about Adaf and Tidhar's approach to writing the fantastic, writing about Israel and Palestine, about Judaism, about the Holocaust, about childhoods and their end.

What is especially exciting is that this book extends the conversation even into their own fiction--and the book ends with two new short stories – Tutim by Tidhar, and Third Attribute by Adaf – in which each appears as a character in the other's tale.

Text:

Tidhar, Lavie & Shimon Adaf. Art & War: Poetry, Pulp and Politics in Israeli Fiction. Repeater Press, 2016.

Shimon Adaf and Lavie Tidhar's new book, Art & War: Poetry, Pulp and Politics in Israeli Fiction, is a dialogue about their approach to writing the fantastic, writing about Israel and Palestine, about Judaism, about the Holocaust, about childhoods and their end.

What is especially exciting is that this book extends the conversation even into their own fiction--and the book ends with two new short stories – Tutim by Tidhar, and Third Attribute by Adaf – in which each appears as a character in the other's tale.

This week and next, Marcela reads selections from each of their dialogues and then their fiction.

Text:

Tidhar, Lavie & Shimon Adaf. Art & War: Poetry, Pulp and Politics in Israeli Fiction. Repeater Press, 2016.

Previous Episode (featuring Shimon Adaf)

Music:

Quetev Meriri - Shel Bney Tmuta

האצולה - צורך

האצולה - אהובתי

"Sabina Messeg is a rare nature poet", writes author and literary scholar Ariel Hirshfeld. "The existence of streams, boulders and plants are fateful for her, which differentiates her from most Jewish poets writing in Hebrew. Messeg truly sees nature as the great Other in her life. Her poetry cautions us about its tremendous beauty, complete innocence and terrible fragility."

Messeg is a particular kind of "nature poet," though—in fact, she is considered the founder of Israeli eco-poetry. Marcela shares her love for the way Messeg's flora act as main characters of her poems.

Text:

Poems from Sabine Messeg, Clil – a farm in Galilee in Mediterranean Poetry

On the Extraordinary Beauty of the Ordinary, in Poetry International Rotterdam

On this episode, Marcela reads poetry by Israeli-Arab poet Dareen Tatour, who was recently released after a nearly three and a half year legal battle resulting from her incarceration for incitement to violence and supporting terrorist organizations in social media posts. The incitement was specifically located in her poems, which were used as evidence in Tatour's trials and hearings.

Text:

Poetry by Dareen Tatour, translated by Andrew Leber in Brooklyn Rail

Jack Khoury, Haaretz, (second poem)

Born in 1971 in St. Petersburg, Alex Epstein moved to the Israeli city of Lod when he was eight years old. His short stories are sometimes as short as a single sentence, and have been described as examples of the "philosophical, or allegorical short-short story." He has published three novels and eight collections of stories in Hebrew.

Text:

Blue Has No South by Alex Epstein, translated by Becka mara McKay, Clockroot Books, 2010.

Lunar Savings Time by Alex Epstein, translated by Becka Mara McKay, Clockroot Books, 2011.

A Children's Story, An Almost Ordinary Love Story, and The Intelligent Mouse by Alex Epstein, translated by Yardenne Greenspan in The Guardian.

Music:

Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 2 "Little Russian"

On this episode of Israel in Translation, Marcela reads three of the six parts of Sharron Hass's long poem "Dinner With Joachim," which appears in the most recent issue of the journal Two Lines. "Dinner with Joachim" is from the collection Daylight, which is a critical inquiry into light as the root of rational thought.

Text:

Sharron Hass, "Dinner with Joachim" translated by Marcela Sulak. Two Lines 29