Israel in Translation

On this episode, Marcela reads two poems by Israeli poet Almog Behar, called Take this poem and copy it and A Poem for the Jailhouse Prisoners in preparation for Passover. Bahar has published books of poetry, a collection of short stories and a novel. In 2005, he won the Haaretz Short Story Competition for his story; Ana Min Al-Yahoud (I am one of the Jews).

Here is an excerpt from Take this poem and copy it:

"Take this poem and copy it a thousand times and distribute it to people on the city's main street. And say to them I wrote this poem this is a poem I wrote this is a poem I wrote this I wrote this poem I wrote this I wrote this I wrote. Take this poem and put it in an envelope and send it to your heart's desire and include a short letter with it. And before you send it change its title and at the end add rhymes of your own. Sweeten the bitter and enrich the spare and bridge the cracked and simplify the clumsy and enliven the dead and square the truth. A person could take many poems and make them his."

Almog Behar was born in Netanya, into a family of Arabic-speaking Jews, in 1978 and lives in Jerusalem. He studied philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Text: Almog Behar, Take This Poem and Copy It. Various translators.

Music: Naseer Shamma - Baghdad Night

On this episode, Marcela reads two poems by Israeli poet Almog Behar, called Take this poem and copy it and A Poem for the Jailhouse Prisoners in preparation for Passover. Bahar has published books of poetry, a collection of short stories and a novel. In 2005, he won the Haaretz Short Story Competition for his story; Ana Min Al-Yahoud (I am one of the Jews).

Here is an excerpt from Take this poem and copy it:

"Take this poem and copy it a thousand times and distribute it to people on the city's main street. And say to them I wrote this poem this is a poem I wrote this is a poem I wrote this I wrote this poem I wrote this I wrote this I wrote. Take this poem and put it in an envelope and send it to your heart's desire and include a short letter with it. And before you send it change its title and at the end add rhymes of your own. Sweeten the bitter and enrich the spare and bridge the cracked and simplify the clumsy and enliven the dead and square the truth. A person could take many poems and make them his."

Almog Behar was born in Netanya, into a family of Arabic-speaking Jews, in 1978 and lives in Jerusalem. He studied philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Text:
Almog Behar, Take This Poem and Copy It. Various translators.

Music:
Naseer Shamma - Baghdad Night

On this episode, Marcela reads from a collection of S.Y. Agnon's work including folk stories and midrashic tales. It's called Forevermore & Other Stories, and is edited and annotated by Jeffrey Saks, and illustrated by Yosl Bergner. There is an area in Jerusalem known by the Arabic name Abu Tor, meaning "father of the ox."

Here is an excerpt from the story "The Father of the Ox" about the origins of Abu Tor:

"Once upon a time there was an old man in Jerusalem. An old, old man he was, yet as innocent as a child. Now this old man had neither child nor wife, but he had a little house and he had a field and he had an ox. This ox had ample strength and a tender heart. He felt sorry for his owner and used to serve him like a slave serves his master. He would plough his field for him and fetch him up water from the spring; and when it was necessary the old man would hang a basket with money round his neck and would tell him, go to the market and fetch me my food. And the old man wanted for nothing with him. I can only hope that we, too, may never lack for anything either rin this world or the world to come. And the neighbors used to call the old man Abu-Tor, or Father of the Ox, all because of the ox he had."

Text: Forevermore & Other Stories. Sy. Y. Agnon. Edited and Annotated by Jeffrey Saks. Illustrated by Yosl Bergner. Toby Press, 2016

Music: Naseer Shamma - The Moon Fades

On this episode, Marcela reads from a collection of S.Y. Agnon's work including folk stories and midrashic tales. It's called Forevermore & Other Stories, and is edited and annotated by Jeffrey Saks, and illustrated by Yosl Bergner. There is an area in Jerusalem known by the Arabic name Abu Tor, meaning "father of the ox."

Here is an excerpt from the story "The Father of the Ox" about the origins of Abu Tor:

"Once upon a time there was an old man in Jerusalem. An old, old man he was, yet as
innocent as a child. Now this old man had neither child nor wife, but he had a little
house and he had a field and he had an ox. This ox had ample strength and a tender
heart. He felt sorry for his owner and used to serve him like a slave serves his
master. He would plough his field for him and fetch him up water from the spring;
and when it was necessary the old man would hang a basket with money round his
neck and would tell him, go to the market and fetch me my food. And the old man
wanted for nothing with him. I can only hope that we, too, may never lack for
anything either rin this world or the world to come. And the neighbors used to call
the old man Abu-Tor, or Father of the Ox, all because of the ox he had."

Text:
Forevermore & Other Stories. Sy. Y. Agnon. Edited and Annotated by Jeffrey
Saks. Illustrated by Yosl Bergner. Toby Press, 2016

Music:
Naseer Shamma - The Moon Fades

On this episode, Marcela reads from Author and poet Hagit Grossman's newest book in Benjamin Balint's English translation, Trembling of the City. The collection consists mostly of intimate portraits of inhabitants of the city, particularly women.

Here is an excerpt from her poem "Sophia":

"All morning she has stolen clothes and given them to the poor. This is what Sophia knows how to do. She being, herself, a very poor woman. She steals clothes from charity shops, but can't stand the bounty in her own closet. She has a conscience. She has a good opinion of herself. She gives them to poor women left out in the cold. She always dreamed of being Robin Hood."

Grossman has been featured on Israel in Translation once before.

Text: Hagit Grossman, Trembling of the City, translated by Benjamin Balint. Shearsman Books, 2016.

Music:Questlove - Goodbye Isaac Mos Def - Respiration Trixcis - Meandering Thoughts

On this episode, Marcela reads from Author and poet Hagit Grossman's newest book in Benjamin Balint's English translation, Trembling of the City. The collection consists mostly of intimate portraits of inhabitants of the city, particularly women.

Here is an excerpt from her poem "Sophia":

"All morning she has stolen clothes and given them to the poor.
This is what Sophia knows how to do.
She being, herself, a very poor woman.
She steals clothes from charity shops,
but can't stand the bounty in her own closet.
She has a conscience. She has a good opinion of herself.
She gives them to poor women left out in the cold.
She always dreamed of being Robin Hood."

Grossman has been featured on Israel in Translation once before.

Text:
Hagit Grossman, Trembling of the City, translated by Benjamin Balint. Shearsman Books, 2016.

Music:
Questlove - Goodbye Isaac
Mos Def - Respiration
Trixcis - Meandering Thoughts

All of Israel celebrated Purim on Sunday, and Monday in Jerusalem. In honor of the festival, host Marcela Sulak reads Raquel Chalfi's work from the recently published collection Reality Crumbs, translated by Tzippi Keller.

Here is an excerpt from her poem "Reckless Love," Blues:

"I was a little reckless, he was a little reckless in a cheap cafe on the eve of Purim, everyone around us with the face to the TV up on the wall. He broadcast to me on a high frequency. I wanted to broadcast low-low but it came out high. I was a little reckless, he was a little reckless."

For information about Chalfi, listen to when she was featured on the podcast once before in 2015.

Text: Reality Crumbs by Raquel Chalfi. SUNY Press, 2015.

Music:7 Years - Lukas Graham - Violin cover by Daniel Jang Lost Boy - Ruth B - Violin cover by Daniel Jang

All of Israel celebrated Purim on Sunday, and Monday in Jerusalem. In honor of the festival, host Marcela Sulak reads Raquel Chalfi's work from the recently published collection Reality Crumbs, translated by Tzippi Keller.

Here is an excerpt from her poem "Reckless Love," Blues:

"I was a little reckless,
he was a little reckless
in a cheap cafe on the eve of Purim,
everyone around us with the face to the TV up on the wall.
He broadcast to me on a high frequency.
I wanted to broadcast low-low but it came out high. I was a little reckless, he was a little reckless."

For information about Chalfi, listen to when she was featured on the podcast once before in 2015. 

Text:
Reality Crumbs by Raquel Chalfi. SUNY Press, 2015.

Music:
7 Years - Lukas Graham - Violin cover by Daniel Jang
Lost Boy - Ruth B - Violin cover by Daniel Jang

Jews everywhere are celebrating Purim this Saturday night, the story of which took place in the ancient Persian Empire. On this week's episode, host Marcela Sulak reads from the essay "Journey to the Land of Israel" by the Iranian writer Jalal Al-e Ahmad. The highly controversial essay is based on his two-week long trip to see Israel in 1963.

This is the intro to "Journey to the Land of Israel":

"Jewish rule in the land of Palestine is a guardianship state and not another kind of government. It is the rule of the Children of Israel's new guardians in the Promised Land, not the rule of the inhabitants of Palestine over Palestine. The first contradiction arising from the existence of Israel is this: that a people, a tribe, a religious community, or the surviving remnants of the twelve tribes—whatever designation you prefer—throughout history, traditions, and myths suffered homelessness and exile, and nurtured many dreams in their hearts until they finally settled, in a way, in answer to such hopes and in a land neither especially promising nor 'promised.'"

Jalal Al-e Ahmad was born to a religious family in Tehran in 1923. A teacher all his life, he joined the Communist Tudeh Party in 1943. His body of work includes short stories, notably the collection An Exchange of Visits and novels including By the Pen, The School Principal, and A Stone on a Grave. Al-e Ahmad was married to the novelist and translator Simin Daneshvar; the couple had no children. He died in 1969. The book was translated by the Jerusalem-based Samuel Thrope.

Text: The Israeli Republic by Jalal Al-e Ahmad. Restless Books, 2017.

Music:Mohammad Reza Shajarian - Entezar آلبوم کامل رندان مست ـ محمدرضا شجریان

Jews everywhere are celebrating Purim this Saturday night, the story of which took place in the ancient Persian Empire. On this week's episode, host Marcela Sulak reads from the essay "Journey to the Land of Israel" by the Iranian writer Jalal Al-e Ahmad. The highly controversial essay is based on his two-week long trip to see Israel in 1963.

This is the intro to “Journey to the Land of Israel”:

"Jewish rule in the land of Palestine is a guardianship state and not another kind of government. It is the rule of the Children of Israel’s new guardians in the Promised Land, not the rule of the inhabitants of Palestine over Palestine. The first contradiction arising from the existence of Israel is this: that a people, a tribe, a religious community, or the surviving remnants of the twelve tribes—whatever designation you prefer—throughout history, traditions, and myths suffered homelessness and exile, and nurtured many dreams in their hearts until they finally settled, in a way, in answer to such hopes and in a land neither especially promising nor 'promised.'"

Jalal Al-e Ahmad was born to a religious family in Tehran in 1923. A teacher all his life, he joined the Communist Tudeh Party in 1943. His body of work includes short stories, notably the collection An Exchange of Visits and novels including By the Pen, The School Principal, and A Stone on a Grave. Al-e Ahmad was married to the novelist and translator Simin Daneshvar; the couple had no children. He died in 1969. The book was translated by the Jerusalem-based Samuel Thrope.

Text:
The Israeli Republic by Jalal Al-e Ahmad. Restless Books, 2017.

Music:
Mohammad Reza Shajarian - Entezar
آلبوم کامل رندان مست ـ محمدرضا شجریان