Israel in Translation

Tonight the fast of Yom Kippur ended, so this episode centers on the theme of Yom Kippur. Host Marcela Sulak reads selected poems from Yehuda Amichai's long series Jerusalem, 1967, as well as a section from his long, narrative poem The Last Travels of Benjamin of Tudela, which begins:

"On Yom Kippur, in tennis shoes, you ran. And with Holy Holy Holy, you jumped up high, higher than anyone, nearly up to the angels on the ceiling. And in the circling of Simchat Torah you circled seven times and seven, and arrived breathless. Like pumping iron, you thrust up the Scrolls of the Law, in the Raising Up with both trembling arms so that all could see what was written, and the strength of your arms."

Texts: The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai. Edited by Robert Alter. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2015.

Music:Maz Bruch - Kol Nidre Itzhak Perlman & Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot - Kol Nidre

Tonight the fast of Yom Kippur ended, so this episode centers on the theme of Yom Kippur. Host Marcela Sulak reads selected poems from Yehuda Amichai's long series Jerusalem, 1967, as well as a section from his long, narrative poem The Last Travels of Benjamin of Tudela, which begins:

"On Yom Kippur, in tennis shoes, you ran.
And with Holy Holy Holy, you jumped up high,
higher than anyone, nearly up to the angels on the ceiling.
And in the circling of Simchat Torah
you circled seven times and seven, and arrived breathless.
Like pumping iron, you thrust up the Scrolls of the Law,
in the Raising Up with both trembling arms
so that all could see what was written, and the strength of your arms."

Texts:
The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai. Edited by Robert Alter. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2015.

Music:
Maz Bruch - Kol Nidre
Itzhak Perlman & Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot - Kol Nidre

In honor of the Jewish new year - Rosh Hashanah - and the upcoming day of atonement - Yom Kippur - host Marcela reads poems on these themes by some of Israel's most exciting poets. She reads "Origin of the World" by the controversial and provocative young poet Noam Partom, which begins like this:

"I hereby close the gates between my legs till further notice For an unlimited period, due to maintenance. No bearers of first fruit will come No pilgrims will make pilgrimage No prayers made under the empty skies, Not a single butchered sheep is to be offered as a sacrifice Upon my tortured holy altar. The origin of the world was found to be rotten. All men are corrupt. All sexual activity – an abomination."

The podcast also features the poetry of Alex Ben-Ari, a computer engineer who moved to Israel from the Soviet Union when he was three. Plus Marcela reads "A Heart-to-Heart Prayer" by "wordman" David Avidan, a poet who died in 1995 after a long career that had a legendary, liberating influence on the form and content of contemporary Israeli poetry.

Text: Poetry International Rotterdam: "I Ask Forgiveness"; "The Most Important Thing in the World"; "Origin of the World"; "A Heart-to-Heart Prayer"

Music:Michal Tal - Asif Eldad Zitrin - Dai Im Ze Hila Ruach - Ari'e Tatran - My Soul Ghost

In honor of the Jewish new year - Rosh Hashanah - and the upcoming day of atonement - Yom Kippur - host Marcela reads poems on these themes by some of Israel's most exciting poets. She reads "Origin of the World" by the controversial and provocative young poet Noam Partom, which begins like this:

"I hereby close the gates between my legs till further notice
For an unlimited period, due to maintenance.
No bearers of first fruit will come
No pilgrims will make pilgrimage
No prayers made under the empty skies,
Not a single butchered sheep is to be offered as a sacrifice
Upon my tortured holy altar.
The origin of the world was found to be rotten.
All men are corrupt.
All sexual activity – an abomination."

The podcast also features the poetry of Alex Ben-Ari, a computer engineer who moved to Israel from the Soviet Union when he was three. Plus Marcela reads "A Heart-to-Heart Prayer" by "wordman" David Avidan, a poet who died in 1995 after a long career that had a legendary, liberating influence on the form and content of contemporary Israeli poetry.

Text:
Poetry International Rotterdam: "I Ask Forgiveness"; "The Most Important Thing in the World"; "Origin of the World"; "A Heart-to-Heart Prayer"

Music:
Michal Tal - Asif
Eldad Zitrin - Dai Im Ze
Hila Ruach - Ari’e
Tatran - My Soul Ghost

As we are in the month of Elul - a month of preparation for the major Jewish holidays - host Marcela Sulak dedicates this week's podcast to poems that give a female insight into the holidays to come: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. All the poems are by Hava Pinhas-Cohen, here is an excerpt from "Follow the Arrow":

"Now in Jerusalem, the Ashkenazi Jews are reciting the Selichot prayers. The Sephardi Jews began three weeks ago, chanting El Malei. Only the lines I left in the margins of pages I keep in drawers confirm that the weeping is long, and that it repeats itself like a Mizrachi song, without resolution, without mercy."

For more information about the fascinating Hava Pinhas-Cohen, listen to our previous podcast "Poetry that bridges the divide."

Text: The Selected Poems of Hava Pinhas-Cohen: Bridging The Divide. Bilingual Edition. Edited and Translated by Sharon Hart-Green. Syracuse University Press, 2015.

Music:Freha Bat Yosef - Face Us In Mercy Matti Caspi - Hine Hine Hagevatron - Unetaneh Tokef Barimatango - Adio Kerida

As we are in the month of Elul - a month of preparation for the major Jewish holidays - host Marcela Sulak dedicates this week's podcast to poems that give a female insight into the holidays to come: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. All the poems are by Hava Pinhas-Cohen, here is an excerpt from "Follow the Arrow":

"Now in Jerusalem, the Ashkenazi Jews are reciting the Selichot prayers.
The Sephardi Jews began three weeks ago,
chanting El Malei.
Only the lines I left in the margins of pages I keep in drawers
confirm that the weeping is long,
and that it repeats itself like a Mizrachi song, without resolution,
without mercy."

For more information about the fascinating Hava Pinhas-Cohen, listen to our previous podcast "Poetry that bridges the divide."

Text:
The Selected Poems of Hava Pinhas-Cohen: Bridging The Divide. Bilingual Edition. Edited and Translated by Sharon Hart-Green. Syracuse University Press, 2015.

Music:
Freha Bat Yosef - Face Us In Mercy
Matti Caspi - Hine Hine
Hagevatron - Unetaneh Tokef
Barimatango - Adio Kerida

Last week Muslims celebrated the holiday of Eid al-Adha, which remembers how Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son to God. Muslims believe Abraham's son to be Ishmael (not Isaac, as mentioned in the Bible). In honor of this festival, host Marcela Sulak reads two poems by Mahmoud Darwish. Here is the beginning of "Ismael's Oud":

"A mare dances on two strings—that's how Ismael's fingers listen to his blood. The villages scatter like poppies in the rhythm. There's neither night there nor day. Divine tarab touches us. All points rush towards the elemental Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Everything will begin anew."

["Tarab" is an Arabic term for experiencing ecstasy in music]

Darwish is considered the Palestinian national poet. He was born in a village in the Galilee in 1942. He and his family fled to Lebanon in 1948, and his village was destroyed by the Israeli army. Returning to the newly formed state of Israel a year later, Darwish remained there until 1970, when he left to study at the University of Moscow, before moving to Egypt and Lebanon. When he joined the PLO in 1973, he was banned from reentering Israel. He settled in Ramallah in 1995 and passed away in 2008. Darwish wrote over 20 books of poetry and nonfiction, first publishing in Al Jadid, the literary periodical of the Israeli Communist Party, eventually becoming its editor.

Text: Mahmoud Darwish, Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? Translated by Jeffrey Sacks. Archipelago Books, 2006.

Music:Abdelkarim Dali - Ibrahim El Khalil Le Trio Joubran - Roubama Le Trio Joubran - Hawana Nasser Shamma - From Great Masters of the Oud

Last week Muslims celebrated the holiday of Eid al-Adha, which remembers how Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son to God. Muslims believe Abraham's son to be Ishmael (not Isaac, as mentioned in the Bible). In honor of this festival, host Marcela Sulak reads two poems by Mahmoud Darwish. Here is the beginning of "Ismael's Oud":

"A mare dances on two strings—that’s how
Ismael’s fingers listen to his blood. The villages scatter
like poppies in the rhythm. There’s neither
night there nor day. Divine tarab
touches us. All points rush towards the elemental
Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Everything will begin anew."

["Tarab" is an Arabic term for experiencing ecstasy in music]

Darwish is considered the Palestinian national poet. He was born in a village in the Galilee in 1942. He and his family fled to Lebanon in 1948, and his village was destroyed by the Israeli army. Returning to the newly formed state of Israel a year later, Darwish remained there until 1970, when he left to study at the University of Moscow, before moving to Egypt and Lebanon. When he joined the PLO in 1973, he was banned from reentering Israel. He settled in Ramallah in 1995 and passed away in 2008. Darwish wrote over 20 books of poetry and nonfiction, first publishing in Al Jadid, the literary periodical of the Israeli Communist Party, eventually becoming its editor.

Text:
Mahmoud Darwish, Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? Translated by Jeffrey Sacks. Archipelago Books, 2006.

Music:
Abdelkarim Dali - Ibrahim El Khalil
Le Trio Joubran - Roubama
Le Trio Joubran - Hawana
Nasser Shamma - From Great Masters of the Oud

Not all literature published in Hebrew in Israel is written by Israelis. Today, host Marcela Sulak reads the poetry of Annabelle Farmelant, an American poet born and raised in Boston who writes in Hebrew. She was living in Tel Aviv when her books appeared with Kiryat Sefer in Jerusalem in 1960 and 1961. Not surprisingly, much of Farmelant's poetry focuses on language and identity. Here is her poem "Builder":

"Though you swam in the sea, you're not like a fish, though you took off in flight, you're not like a bird— The towers of Babel you built wrecked over the man dwelling in the poet's wings. The eagle is proud, the dove is weak and he gropes without a chisel or a brush for the light in the dark."

Farmelant claims that Hebrew came naturally to her as the language of her poetry. However, the Hebraic world of East European Jewish immigrants, among which Farmelant studied, was male dominated. So her only model as a female Hebrew-language poet was Rachel. Sometimes Farmelant appropriated the Greek lyric poet Sappho as a "poetic mother," as Marcela demonstrates in this week's podcast.

Text: Women's Hebrew Poetry on American Shores: Poems by Anne Kleiman and Annabelle Farmelant. Translated by Adriana X. Jacobs and Yosefa Raz. Edited by Schachar Pinsker. Wayne State University Press, 2016.

Music:Joni Mitchell (instrumentals) - Blue; Little Green Instrumental; I Had A King HaGevatron - Shneinu Meoto Hakfar Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel; Reincarnation

Not all literature published in Hebrew in Israel is written by Israelis. Today, host Marcela Sulak reads the poetry of Annabelle Farmelant, an American poet born and raised in Boston who writes in Hebrew. She was living in Tel Aviv when her books appeared with Kiryat Sefer in Jerusalem in 1960 and 1961. Not surprisingly, much of Farmelant's poetry focuses on language and identity. Here is her poem "Builder":

"Though you swam in the sea, you're not like a fish,
though you took off in flight, you're not like a bird—
The towers of Babel you built wrecked
over the man dwelling in the poet's wings.
The eagle is proud, the dove is weak
and he gropes without a chisel
or a brush
for the light in the dark."

Farmelant claims that Hebrew came naturally to her as the language of her poetry. However, the Hebraic world of East European Jewish immigrants, among which Farmelant studied, was male dominated. So her only model as a female Hebrew-language poet was Rachel. Sometimes Farmelant appropriated the Greek lyric poet Sappho as a "poetic mother," as Marcela demonstrates in this week's podcast.

Text:
Women’s Hebrew Poetry on American Shores: Poems by Anne Kleiman and Annabelle Farmelant. Translated by Adriana X. Jacobs and Yosefa Raz. Edited by Schachar Pinsker. Wayne State University Press, 2016.

Music:
Joni Mitchell (instrumentals) - Blue; Little Green Instrumental; I Had A King
HaGevatron - Shneinu Meoto Hakfar
Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel; Reincarnation