Israel in Translation

Meir Wieseltier is one of Israel's foremost poets. A winner of the Bialik Prize and the Israel Prize, he has published 13 collections of poetry. In honor of the month of Elul, in which, among religious Jews, the "shofar" horn is blown each day, host Marcela Sulak read's Wieseltier's poem "Wisdom."

"The whole of my wisdom contracts to the bulk of a fly on a bright window-pane, what were mountains and vales are but a scratch on glass."

Marcela reads several other poems by Wieseltier, which tackle life's painful realities, searching for values in the midst of chaos. Wieseltier was born in Moscow in 1941, and immigrated to Israel when he was a child. He grew up in Netanya and, in 1955, moved to Tel Aviv where he has lived ever since.

Text: Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry, Tzipi Keller, SUNY Press 2008.

Further reading:Poetry International Rotterdam

Music:Zohar Argov - Lihiot Adam Felix Mendelssohn - Songs Without Words, Op.30 no.1 in E flat Major Ernest Bloch - From Jewish Life (Part 3) Felix Mendelssohn - Songs Without Words, Op.19 no.6 in G Minor Ernest Bloch - From Jewish Life (Part 2)

Meir Wieseltier is one of Israel's foremost poets. A winner of the Bialik Prize and the Israel Prize, he has published 13 collections of poetry. In honor of the month of Elul, in which, among religious Jews, the "shofar" horn is blown each day, host Marcela Sulak read's Wieseltier's poem "Wisdom."

"The whole of my wisdom contracts to the bulk of a fly on a bright window-pane,
what were mountains and vales are but a scratch on glass."

Marcela reads several other poems by Wieseltier, which tackle life's painful realities, searching for values in the midst of chaos. Wieseltier was born in Moscow in 1941, and immigrated to Israel when he was a child. He grew up in Netanya and, in 1955, moved to Tel Aviv where he has lived ever since.

Text:
Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry, Tzipi Keller, SUNY Press 2008.

Further reading:
Poetry International Rotterdam

Music:
Zohar Argov - Lihiot Adam
Felix Mendelssohn - Songs Without Words, Op.30 no.1 in E flat Major
Ernest Bloch - From Jewish Life (Part 3)
Felix Mendelssohn - Songs Without Words, Op.19 no.6 in G Minor
Ernest Bloch - From Jewish Life (Part 2)

The Secret Book of Kings, the fifth of Yochi Brandes' six novels, appeared last week in English translation. It's the first of the best-selling writer's novels to be translated into English. Brandes retells the stories of the House of Saul and of the northern Kingdom of Israel, stories that were artfully concealed by the House of David and the scribes of the southern Kingdom of Judah. Host Marcela Sulak reads an excerpt from the first part of the novel, narrated by the child Shelomoam.

"The Judeans refuse to accept the superiority and leadership of the tribe of Joseph. Sometimes they use force against us, like when Caleb ben Jephunneh tried to rebel against Joshua, and at other times they use stories."

"Stories?" I asked with wonder. "But stories aren't weapons."

Mother answered with a grave expression on her face that stories are more dangerous than swords. Swords can only harm those standing right in front of them, while stories determine who will live and who will die in future generations.

Brandes was born in Haifa to a family of Hasidic rabbis. She taught Bible and Judaism for many years. She has been awarded the Book Publishers Association's Platinum Book Prizes for seven of her books, including the Hebrew edition of The Secret Book of Kings.

Text: The Secret Book of Kings, by Yochi Brandes. Translated by Yardenne Greenspan. St. Martin's Press, August 23, 2016.

Music: Michael Levy - Reconstructed Ancient Egyptian Melody Peter Pringle - The Lyre Of Meggido Chilly Gonzales - Train Of Thought

Producer: Laragh Widdess Technical producer: Alex Benish

The Secret Book of Kings, the fifth of Yochi Brandes' six novels, appeared last week in English translation. It's the first of the best-selling writer's novels to be translated into English. Brandes retells the stories of the House of Saul and of the northern Kingdom of Israel, stories that were artfully concealed by the House of David and the scribes of the southern Kingdom of Judah. Host Marcela Sulak reads an excerpt from the first part of the novel, narrated by the child Shelomoam.

"The Judeans refuse to accept the superiority and leadership of the tribe of Joseph. Sometimes they use force against us, like when Caleb ben Jephunneh tried to rebel against Joshua, and at other times they use stories."

"Stories?" I asked with wonder. "But stories aren’t weapons."

Mother answered with a grave expression on her face that stories are more dangerous than swords. Swords can only harm those standing right in front of them, while stories determine who will live and who will die in future generations.

Brandes was born in Haifa to a family of Hasidic rabbis. She taught Bible and Judaism for many years. She has been awarded the Book Publishers Association's Platinum Book Prizes for seven of her books, including the Hebrew edition of The Secret Book of Kings.

Text:
The Secret Book of Kings, by Yochi Brandes. Translated by Yardenne Greenspan. St. Martin’s Press, August 23, 2016.

Music:
Michael Levy - Reconstructed Ancient Egyptian Melody
Peter Pringle - The Lyre Of Meggido
Chilly Gonzales - Train Of Thought

Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Alex Benish

Yiftach Atir's novel, The English Teacher, is newly appeared in English translation this year. Host Marcela Sulak reads some excerpts from the book, including Atir's opening note:

"The book you are holding in your hands is the true story of what never happened. This is the story of a Mossad operative. She and others like her operate alone for extended periods of time, deep in enemy countries. Unlike their front-line soldier counterparts, these secret soldiers are armed with nothing but a foreign passport, a fake identity, extensive training, and inexplicable courage."

Atir was born in 1949 on a kibbutz in the south of Israel. As a young military officer, he participated in Operation Entebbe as well as other, still-classified, military and intelligence operations. The English Teacher is the third of his four novels.

Text: The English Teacher by Yiftach Atir. Translated by Philip Simpson. Penguin Books, 2016.

Music: Rami Fortis - Shkiata Shel HaZricha Alberto Iglesias - "George Smiley" (from Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy OST) Dick Hyman - Theme from The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Yiftach Atir’s novel, The English Teacher, is newly appeared in English translation this year. Host Marcela Sulak reads some excerpts from the book, including Atir's opening note:

"The book you are holding in your hands is the true story of what never happened. This is the story of a Mossad operative. She and others like her operate alone for extended periods of time, deep in enemy countries. Unlike their front-line soldier counterparts, these secret soldiers are armed with nothing but a foreign passport, a fake identity, extensive training, and inexplicable courage."

Atir was born in 1949 on a kibbutz in the south of Israel. As a young military officer, he participated in Operation Entebbe as well as other, still-classified, military and intelligence operations. The English Teacher is the third of his four novels.

Text:
The English Teacher by Yiftach Atir. Translated by Philip Simpson. Penguin Books, 2016.

Music:
Rami Fortis - Shkiata Shel HaZricha
Alberto Iglesias - "George Smiley" (from Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy OST)
Dick Hyman - Theme from The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

Host Marcela Sulak reads the short story "Mosquito" by Roy Chen. Set in Tel Aviv on the city's "White Night," it follows an author and his girlfriend as they make their way to an evening of literary readings at a local café-bookstore:

"Tel Aviv grinned like a little girl with tooth decay while she puffed on a pipe held in the corner of her mouth. Cars honked, ice cream dribbled, dogs peed on sycamore trees. City flags flew atop balconies. Fireworks were launched into the sky from the beach, lighting up all the air-conditioners, antennas, and solar water heaters that clung to the buildings like leeches."

Chen's "author," who is supposed to be reading his work at the event, has been on edge from the start. Inside the claustrophobic café he must endure bad poetry and even worse conversation... until he loses his patience.

Text: "Mosquito" by Roy Chen, translated by Jessica Cohen in World Literature Today, Vol.89, No.3/4. May-August 2015.

Music: The Dave Brubeck Quartet - For All We Know; Southern Scene; King For A Day

Host Marcela Sulak reads the short story "Mosquito" by Roy Chen. Set in Tel Aviv on the city's "White Night," it follows an author and his girlfriend as they make their way to an evening of literary readings at a local café-bookstore:

"Tel Aviv grinned like a little girl with tooth decay while she puffed on a pipe held in the corner of her mouth. Cars honked, ice cream dribbled, dogs peed on sycamore trees. City flags flew atop balconies. Fireworks were launched into the sky from the beach, lighting up all the air-conditioners, antennas, and solar water heaters that clung to the buildings like leeches."

Chen's "author," who is supposed to be reading his work at the event, has been on edge from the start. Inside the claustrophobic café he must endure bad poetry and even worse conversation... until he loses his patience.

Text:
"Mosquito" by Roy Chen, translated by Jessica Cohen in World Literature Today, Vol.89, No.3/4. May-August 2015.

Music:
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - For All We Know; Southern Scene; King For A Day

"This is the chronicle of the city of Buczacz, which I have written in my pain and anguish so that our descendants should know that our city was full of Torah, wisdom, love, piety, life, grace, kindness, and charity."

So begins Shai Agnon's epic story cycle entitled A City in Its Fullness - a literary memorial to the city of his birth, now called Buchach in Western Ukraine. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Agnon's receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature (Agnon is the only Hebrew language writer ever to receive the prize), and in honor of the upcoming Jewish fast of Tisha b'Av, host Marcela Sulak reads from a story in this cycle called "Pisces." It's about a householder called Fishl Karp, a portly man who loves food and gets distracted on his way to the synagogue one morning:

"He met a fisherman with his net coming from the Strypa. He was stooped under the weight of the net, and the net was shaking itself and its bearer. Fishl looked and saw a fish quivering there in the net. In all his days, Fishl had never seen such a large fish. When his eyes settled down after seeing the new sight, his soul began to quiver with desire to enjoy a meal made from the fish. So great was his appetite that he didn't ask how such a stupendous fish had found its way into the waters that do not produce large fish. What did Fishl say when he saw the fish? He said, 'The Leviathan knows that Fishl Karp loves large fish and sent him what he loves.'"

Hear more about Agnon's life and work in our previous podcast "Only Yesterday."

Text: "Pisces." Translated by Jeffrey M. Green in A City in Its Fullness by S. Y. Agnon. Edited by Alan Mintz and Jeffrey Saks. Toby Press, 2016.

Music: The Chicago Klezmer Ensemble - Doyna And Sirba Populara; Sweet Home Bukovina; Mazltov; A Hora Mit Tsibeles

"This is the chronicle of the city of Buczacz, which I have written in my pain and anguish so that our descendants should know that our city was full of Torah, wisdom, love, piety, life, grace, kindness, and charity."

So begins Shai Agnon's epic story cycle entitled A City in Its Fullness - a literary memorial to the city of his birth, now called Buchach in Western Ukraine. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Agnon's receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature (Agnon is the only Hebrew language writer ever to receive the prize), and in honor of the upcoming Jewish fast of Tisha b’Av, host Marcela Sulak reads from a story in this cycle called "Pisces." It's about a householder called Fishl Karp, a portly man who loves food and gets distracted on his way to the synagogue one morning:

"He met a fisherman with his net coming from the Strypa. He was stooped under the weight of the net, and the net was shaking itself and its bearer. Fishl looked and saw a fish quivering there in the net. In all his days, Fishl had never seen such a large fish. When his eyes settled down after seeing the new sight, his soul began to quiver with desire to enjoy a meal made from the fish. So great was his appetite that he didn’t ask how such a stupendous fish had found its way into the waters that do not produce large fish. What did Fishl say when he saw the fish? He said, 'The Leviathan knows that Fishl Karp loves large fish and sent him what he loves.'"

Hear more about Agnon's life and work in our previous podcast "Only Yesterday."

Text:
"Pisces." Translated by Jeffrey M. Green in A City in Its Fullness by S. Y. Agnon. Edited by Alan Mintz and Jeffrey Saks. Toby Press, 2016.

Music:
The Chicago Klezmer Ensemble - Doyna And Sirba Populara; Sweet Home Bukovina; Mazltov; A Hora Mit Tsibeles