Israel in Translation

This week, host Marcela Sulak reads the poetry of Natan Yonatan alongside a soundtrack of songs dedicated to his poetry - each poem is accompanied by its musical version. Here is an extract from "Poems Only Go So Far":

"Poems only go so far. It’s time we conceded that,and break the bond of silence that we’ve shared.Our poppies never were any redder than theirs;our sins were never white as the drifting snow,and it seemed we’d always be so; weary birds that never stoppedbut always flew."

Natan Yonatan was born Natan Klein in Kiev in 1923, before his family immigrated to Mandate Palestine two years later. Much of Yonatan’s poetry, which won him the Bialik Prize, is inspired by the natural world, and also by the loss of his oldest son, Lior, who fell in the Yom Kippur War at the age of 21. Yonatan died after a brief illness in 2004, at the age of 80.

Text:Within the song to Live: Selected Poems by Natan Yonatan, translated by Janice Silverman Rebibo. Gefen Publishing 2005.

Music by Gidi Koren, performed by The Brothers and the Sisters:If This WorldAfter The StormPoems Only Go So FarBeyond The Pass

This week, host Marcela Sulak reads the poetry of Natan Yonatan alongside a soundtrack of songs dedicated to his poetry - each poem is accompanied by its musical version. Here is an extract from "Poems Only Go So Far":

"Poems only go so far. It’s time we conceded that,
and break the bond of silence that we’ve shared.
Our poppies never were any redder than theirs;
our sins were never white as the drifting snow,
and it seemed we’d always be so; weary birds that never stopped
but always flew."

Natan Yonatan was born Natan Klein in Kiev in 1923, before his family immigrated to Mandate Palestine two years later. Much of Yonatan’s poetry, which won him the Bialik Prize, is inspired by the natural world, and also by the loss of his oldest son, Lior, who fell in the Yom Kippur War at the age of 21. Yonatan died after a brief illness in 2004, at the age of 80.

Text:
Within the song to Live: Selected Poems by Natan Yonatan, translated by Janice Silverman Rebibo. Gefen Publishing 2005.

Music by Gidi Koren, performed by The Brothers and the Sisters:
If This World
After The Storm
Poems Only Go So Far
Beyond The Pass

On Sunday night Jews in Israel and all over the world lit the first candle of eight on their hanukkiot. In honor of the holiday, host Marcela Sulak reads poems about miracles, light, and candles, for instance Ronny Someck's "Poem to a Girl Already Born":

"On the day you were born the workers of joywarmed their hands against the fire, litwith the match of your life.Night after night I am possessed with the sound of your breathas if it were the glimmer of a lighthouse for a sailor who was almost devouredby the ocean’s teeth."

Our 2014 Hanukkah podcast focused on the story of the Maccabi revolt and modern day Hanukkah traditions. This year Marcela conveys the spiritual side of the festival of light.

Texts:T. Carmi: "Miracles" (Poetry International Rotterdam)T. Carmi: "Awakening" (Poems Found in Translation)T. Carmi: The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself: A new and updated edition. Ed. Stanley Burnshaw, T. Carmi, Susan Glassman, Ariel Hirschfeld and Ezra Spicehandler. Wayne State University Press, 2003.Ronny Someck & Dan Armon: Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry. Translated by Tzipi Keller. SUNY Press, 2004.

Music:Itzhar Cohen - Al HaNisimYosef Karduner - Maoz TzurRuhama Raz - Nerotai HaZeirim

On Sunday night Jews in Israel and all over the world lit the first candle of eight on their hanukkiot. In honor of the holiday, host Marcela Sulak reads poems about miracles, light, and candles, for instance Ronny Someck's "Poem to a Girl Already Born":

"On the day you were born the workers of joy
warmed their hands against the fire, lit
with the match of your life.
Night after night I am possessed with the sound of your breath
as if it were the glimmer of a lighthouse for a sailor who was almost devoured
by the ocean’s teeth."

Our 2014 Hanukkah podcast focused on the story of the Maccabi revolt and modern day Hanukkah traditions. This year Marcela conveys the spiritual side of the festival of light.

Texts:
T. Carmi: "Miracles" (Poetry International Rotterdam)
T. Carmi: "Awakening" (Poems Found in Translation)
T. Carmi: The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself: A new and updated edition. Ed. Stanley Burnshaw, T. Carmi, Susan Glassman, Ariel Hirschfeld and Ezra Spicehandler. Wayne State University Press, 2003.
Ronny Someck & Dan Armon: Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry. Translated by Tzipi Keller. SUNY Press, 2004.

Music:
Itzhar Cohen - Al HaNisim
Yosef Karduner - Maoz Tzur
Ruhama Raz - Nerotai HaZeirim

As the Israeli school year is finally under way, it might be a good time to examine our professors. Host Marcela Sulak reads the end of Yoel Hoffmann’s latest book, Moods, which starts off with a quirky comparison:

"We know some professors who are the exact opposite of wild geese. First of all, they’re always quarreling and therefore they can’t take off and fly in those beautiful formations. Second, their colors. They’re never white. Usually they’re one shade or another of green or yellow. Third, their necks are short."

Hoffmann was born in Romania in 1937. He is one of Israel’s foremost experimental novelists, and this is his tenth novel. You can hear an excerpt of Yoel Hoffman’s Katzchen on the October 6 podcast, as well as Hoffman’s more complete bio.

Texts:Moods, by Yoel Hoffmann, translated by Peter Cole. New Directions Press, 2015.

Music:Philip Glass - Glassworks: Opening, Island, Closing

As the Israeli school year is finally under way, it might be a good time to examine our professors. Host Marcela Sulak reads the end of Yoel Hoffmann’s latest book, Moods, which starts off with a quirky comparison:

"We know some professors who are the exact opposite of wild geese. First of all, they’re always quarreling and therefore they can’t take off and fly in those beautiful formations. Second, their colors. They’re never white. Usually they’re one shade or another of green or yellow. Third, their necks are short."

Hoffmann was born in Romania in 1937. He is one of Israel’s foremost experimental novelists, and this is his tenth novel. You can hear an excerpt of Yoel Hoffman’s Katzchen on the October 6 podcast, as well as Hoffman’s more complete bio.

Texts:
Moods, by Yoel Hoffmann, translated by Peter Cole. New Directions Press, 2015.

Music:
Philip Glass - Glassworks: Opening, Island, Closing

This week we return to the Druze village of Maghar in the upper Galilee, with the poetry of Salman Masalha. He was born there in 1953, three years after his fellow villager, the poet Naim Araidi, featured in our October 13 podcast. Host Marcela Sulak reads Masalha's elemental sequence of poems on Water, Fire, Earth, and the Ark.

"Fire is a young body.The winds of doubt will not touch it.It refuses to dress in anythingbut black garments.It exists since the beginningon the fruit of the waters."

Masalha has been living in Jerusalem since 1972, where he taught Arabic language (at Hebrew University) and served as co-editor of the Concordance of Early Arabic Poetry. Marcela also reads an excerpt from an essay about his adopted city of Jerusalem, called “The City of the Walking Flower."

Texts:"Water," "Fire," "Earth," "The Ark" - The Virginia Quarterly

Music written by Salman Masalha:Kamilya Jubran - LafzMarwan Abado Ensemble - Ya Sahib Al Dann

This week we return to the Druze village of Maghar in the upper Galilee, with the poetry of Salman Masalha. He was born there in 1953, three years after his fellow villager, the poet Naim Araidi, featured in our October 13 podcast. Host Marcela Sulak reads Masalha's elemental sequence of poems on Water, Fire, Earth, and the Ark.

"Fire is a young body.
The winds of doubt will not touch it.
It refuses to dress in anything
but black garments.
It exists since the beginning
on the fruit of the waters."

Masalha has been living in Jerusalem since 1972, where he taught Arabic language (at Hebrew University) and served as co-editor of the Concordance of Early Arabic Poetry. Marcela also reads an excerpt from an essay about his adopted city of Jerusalem, called “The City of the Walking Flower."

Texts:
"Water," "Fire," "Earth," "The Ark" - The Virginia Quarterly

Music written by Salman Masalha:
Kamilya Jubran - Lafz
Marwan Abado Ensemble - Ya Sahib Al Dann

Today host Marcela Sulak reads some poems by Hava Pinhas-Cohen. An anthology of her selected poems, Bridging the Divide, has just appeared, with English translation by Sharon Hart-Green. Pinhas-Cohen was born in Israel into a family of Bulgarian Jewish immigrants who’d arrived after WWII. Here's an extract from the poem “Only in the East”:

"Only in the East are two priestly hands a pyramid for your soul.Only in the East do lions and deer stop in their tracks to hear the sounds of distant water.There, in the East, the world has sides that are equaland your soul will find its rest. There."

Pinhas-Cohen has taught literature and writing in high school for many years, and has developed a special method of integrating literature, Bible, visual arts, and cinema. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Dimui journal, and a columnist for the daily newspaper Maariv. Her six collections of poetry have won many prizes, including the Prime Minister’s Prize.

Hava Pinhas-Cohen also founded and serves as the Artistic Director of Kisufim, a conference of Jewish writers that occurs every other year. It's happening next week in Jerusalem, from November 23-27.

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:Yifat Gelber - Shilkhi (words by Hava Pinhas-Cohen)Ahuva Ozeri - Emek HaPrakhimTesha - Just A Beautiful Day On The Beach

Today host Marcela Sulak reads some poems by Hava Pinhas-Cohen. An anthology of her selected poems, Bridging the Divide, has just appeared, with English translation by Sharon Hart-Green. Pinhas-Cohen was born in Israel into a family of Bulgarian Jewish immigrants who’d arrived after WWII. Here's an extract from the poem “Only in the East”:

"Only in the East are two priestly hands a pyramid for your soul.
Only in the East do lions and deer stop in their tracks to hear the sounds of distant water.
There, in the East, the world has sides that are equal
and your soul will find its rest. There."

Pinhas-Cohen has taught literature and writing in high school for many years, and has developed a special method of integrating literature, Bible, visual arts, and cinema. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Dimui journal, and a columnist for the daily newspaper Maariv. Her six collections of poetry have won many prizes, including the Prime Minister’s Prize.

Hava Pinhas-Cohen also founded and serves as the Artistic Director of Kisufim, a conference of Jewish writers that occurs every other year. It's happening next week in Jerusalem, from November 23-27.

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:
Yifat Gelber - Shilkhi (words by Hava Pinhas-Cohen)
Ahuva Ozeri - Emek HaPrakhim
Tesha - Just A Beautiful Day On The Beach