Israel in Translation

Host Marcela Sulak reads from a folkloric-infused story by the Jerusalem-born writer Dan Banaya-Seri, in which a simple Jewish man uses his minimal understanding of Christmas to try to make sense of his marital obligations.

Text:

"Birds of the Shade," by Dan Banaya-Seri. Translated by Betsy Rosenberg. In Keys to the Garden: New Israeli Writing. Ed. Ammiel Alcalay. City Lights Books. 1996.

Music:

Silent Night by George Martinos

Birds Chirping by Alexander

In honor of the beginning of Hanukkah, host Marcella Sulak reads Etgar Keret's story "Childish Things", translated by Sondra Silverston, which takes place during the holiday.

Excerpt:

When Lev heard that he couldn't burn the curtain, he burst into tears and claimed that in kindergarten, they said that every day you have to light a curtain and eat eight jelly doughnuts. My wife still tried to argue that the only things that gets lit are candles and the exact number of jelly doughnuts to be eaten isn't specified in the holiday manual. But her flimsy arguments shattered on the armor of our pyromaniac son's terrifying determination.

Text: "Childish Things" by Etgar Keret. Translated by Sondra Silverston, Tablet Magazine.

Music: Al Hanisim by Izhar Cohen Banu Hosheh Legaresh by LeHakat HaKesher HaVirtuali Ma'oz Tzur by Yosef Karduner

In Yehudit Hendel's story "The Dancer", the narrator talks about life, death, and God with a barefoot man dancing in a park.

Hendel was born in Warsaw in 1926 to a Hasidic family. In 1930, her family immigrated to Israel, and her first stories were published in 1942. She emerged as one of the first female voices in Hebrew literature after Israel's independence in 1948.

Text: "The Dancer" by Yehudit Hendel, translated by Miriam Schlusselberg

Tuvia Ruebner is a poet who was born was born in multi-ethnic Bratislava, Slovakia in 1924 and received permission to enter British Mandate Palestine in 1941. To this day, he translates his work into German, and all of it has been published in Germany. In Hebrew, he is the author of fifteen volumes of poetry, two photograph albums, and a monograph on the poetry of his close friend, writer-scholar Lea Goldberg, as well as other literary criticism and translations.

Text:

Tuvia Ruebner, Late Beauty. Translated by Lisa Katz and Shahar Bram. Zephyr Press, 2017.

Previous episode of "Israel in Translation" featuring poems by Tuvia Ruebner.

Tamar Merin is a writer, critic, and literary scholar. In her story "What Are You Looking At?", the prosaic act of a mother and son going for ice cream becomes an exploration of the anxiety of immigration, the shock of living in a new land.

Text: "What are you Looking At?" by Tamar Merin. Translated by Ari Leiberman.

Tamar Merin is a writer, critic, and literary scholar. In her story “What Are You Looking At?”, the prosaic act of a mother and son going for ice cream becomes an exploration of the anxiety of immigration, the shock of living in a new land.

Text:
“What are you Looking At?” by Tamar Merin. Translated by Ari Leiberman.

Sharon Hass's poems draw on mythical images and on philosophy, reflecting her academic background. Many of her pieces dance on the border between reality, legend and dream, while frequently alluding to figures known from ancient mythology and world literature.

Music: Lonely Arcade Man – Diamond Estate The Video Within – Diamond Estate

Text: Poems by Sharron Hass, translations by Amalia Ziv, Vivian Eden, Lisa Katz.

Sharon Hass's poems draw on mythical images and on philosophy, reflecting her academic background. Many of her pieces dance on the border between reality, legend and dream, while frequently alluding to figures known from ancient mythology and world literature.

Music:
Lonely Arcade Man – Diamond Estate
The Video Within – Diamond Estate

Text:
Poems by Sharron Hass, translations by Amalia Ziv, Vivian Eden, Lisa Katz.

Set in a Tel Aviv apartment building, Eshkol Nevo's newest novel, Three Floors Up, examines a society in crisis, through the turmoils, secrets, unreliable confessions, and problematic decisions of the building's residents.

On the first floor, Arnon, a tormented retired officer who fought in the First Intifada, confesses to an army friend how his obsession with his daughter's safety led him to lose control and put his marriage in peril. Above Arnon lives Hani, whose husband travels the world for work while she stays at home with their two children, increasingly isolated and unstable. On the top floor lives a former judge, Devora. Retired and eager to start a new life, she joins a social movement, tries to reconnect with her estranged son, and falls in love with a man who isn't what he seems.

Text: Three Floors Up. Sondra Silverston. Otherpress, Oct. 2017.

Eshkol Nevo's Homesick Episode

Set in a Tel Aviv apartment building, Eshkol Nevo’s newest novel, Three Floors Up, examines a society in crisis, through the turmoils, secrets, unreliable confessions, and problematic decisions of the building’s residents.

On the first floor, Arnon, a tormented retired officer who fought in the First Intifada, confesses to an army friend how his obsession with his daughter’s safety led him to lose control and put his marriage in peril. Above Arnon lives Hani, whose husband travels the world for work while she stays at home with their two children, increasingly isolated and unstable. On the top floor lives a former judge, Devora. Retired and eager to start a new life, she joins a social movement, tries to reconnect with her estranged son, and falls in love with a man who isn’t what he seems.

Text:
Three Floors Up. Sondra Silverston. Otherpress, Oct. 2017.

Eshkol Nevo’s Homesick Episode