Israel in Translation

Today's episode is about the story behind the prayer we most usually associate with Rosh Hashanah, "Unetanneh Tokef." We don't know who wrote the poem, although it's attributed to an 11th century sage who lived in Germany. Modern scholars say the prayer is much older than originally believed, perhaps as early as the 8th century. Host Marcela Sulak explains the legend behind this piece of liturgy from the high holiday services and reads the prayer for the new year.

Music: "ונתנה תוקף" by סא"ל שי אברמסון & המקהלה והתזמורת הפילהרמונית אס.אף.ווי

Text: Unetanneh Tokef (Wikipedia)

Eli Eliahu is a poet who lives in Ramat-Gan. Recently, his work has begun to be translated and published into English. Eliahu's work can be playful and fanciful, but it is also socially engaged. He has described his poetry as "a documentation of the struggle of the individual against [the] background" of "a very stressed, crowded, violent and noisy country." Eliahu has published two highly praised books in Hebrew, "I, and Not an Angel" (2008) and "City and Fears" (2011). He is the recipient of the 2014 Levi Eshkol Prime Minister's Poetry Prize and writes for Haaretz on poetry and culture. Host Marcela Sulak reads six of his poems on today's episode.

Music: The Joy Of Lina (Farha) by Ihsan Al Munzer Cacha Merakdim Beisrael by Hanna Ahroni

Text: All works by Eli Eliahu "Crossroads" and "Simple Thing," translated by Kenneth Haworth "Alibi," translated by Adriana X. Jacobs "Recommendation," "On How I am Like a Pencil," and "Under the Ground"

This week, host Marcela Sulak features Israeli poetry from the current issue of a special international journal based in Israel called The Ilanot Review. Each issue is themed, and the current issue is called "Letters." It covers all aspects of letters, from the alphabet, to the epistolary. The Ilanot Review is edited by alumni and faculty from the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University publishes an expanse of writers in English translation and in English originals.

Music: Avdei Zman by Etti Ankri

Text: Yonathan Berg, "To My Mother," translated by Joanna Chen Vaan Nguyen, "Metropolitan Pieces," translated by Adriana X. Jacobs Avraham Sutzkever, Two Poems, translated by Maia Evrona Tahel Frosh, "This is What Happened," translated by Yosefa Raz Rafi Weichert, "Odyssey," translated by Karen Alkalay Gut

The Jewish month of Elul began last week, a month of repentance before the High Holidays. This seems a fitting time to read an excerpt of the 11th century Jewish-Spanish poet Solomon Ibn Gavirol's magnificent poem, "A Crown for the King," translated by David R. Slavitt. The theme of this poem is human frailty and proclivity to sin, and it focuses on humanity's place in the world, the operation of free will, and repentance.

Here is an excerpt:

You live, but not in time, for you are time itself. You live, but not by breathing in and breathing out, for you are breath itself. You live, but not with a soul, for you are the source of souls. You live, but not with the life of man that is like vanity and ends in the ravening of worms and moths. You live, and he who finds you out as you gather him into your eternal bliss "will eat and live forever."

Music: Sezufat Semes/Lesoni Bonanta – Shlomo ibn Gabirol "Avicebrón"

Text: Psalm 27 "Solomon Ibn Gabirol, A Crown for the King." Translated by David R. Slavitt. Oxford University Press, 1998.

These hot weeks of summer, host Marcela Sulak will be suggesting some good beach reading, such as Ofir Touche Gafla's novel The World of the End, translated by Mitch Ginsburg, and published in English 2015. The book won the 2005 Geffen Award for the best fantasy/science fiction novel of the year and the 2006 Kugel Award for Hebrew literature. Gafla teaches creative writing in the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem.

Music:A Musical Joke K522 by Mozart

Text: Gafla, Ofir Touché. The World of the End. Translated by Mitch Ginsburg. Tom Doherty Associates, 2015.