Israel in Translation

The poet Ilana Shmueli was born in Czernowitz in 1914, and is perhaps best known in relationship to the poet Paul Celan, also from Czernowitz . There they met when they were young, taking a memorable walk together through an autumnal forest in 1942, quoting poetry to one another:

"Then we strode solemnly down the chestnut allee—and the chestnuts bloomed a second time—white candles against the improbably profound blue of the sky. Beautiful!"

Host Marcela Sulak reads extracts from Shmueli's memoir, translated from the German by Susan Gillespie. Shmueli moved to Palestine with her family in 1944, joined the army and took part in the war of independence. She married a doctor there in 1953, with whom she had a daughter. She met Paul Celan again in 1965 and they renewed their acquaintance until his death in 1970.

Text:Toward Babel: Poems and a Memoir by Ilana Shmueli. Trnaslated by Susan H. Gillespie. The Sheep Meadow Press, 2013.

Music:Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7 in C major, 3rd Movement (Adagio)Faran Ensemble - RainGevatron - Ani Nose Imi

The poet Ilana Shmueli was born in Czernowitz in 1914, and is perhaps best known in relationship to the poet Paul Celan, also from Czernowitz . There they met when they were young, taking a memorable walk together through an autumnal forest in 1942, quoting poetry to one another:

"Then we strode solemnly down the chestnut allee—and the chestnuts bloomed a second time—white candles against the improbably profound blue of the sky. Beautiful!"

Host Marcela Sulak reads extracts from Shmueli's memoir, translated from the German by Susan Gillespie. Shmueli moved to Palestine with her family in 1944, joined the army and took part in the war of independence. She married a doctor there in 1953, with whom she had a daughter. She met Paul Celan again in 1965 and they renewed their acquaintance until his death in 1970.

Text:
Toward Babel: Poems and a Memoir by Ilana Shmueli. Trnaslated by Susan H. Gillespie. The Sheep Meadow Press, 2013.

Music:
Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7 in C major, 3rd Movement (Adagio)
Faran Ensemble - Rain
Gevatron - Ani Nose Imi

Ronit Matalon’s first novel to be translated into English is organized around 17 snapshots from an imaginary photo album. This kaleidoscopic family mosaic chronicles the disintegration of an Egyptian-Jewish clan after WWII, when its members are dispersed from Cairo to Israel, New York, and Cameroon. Host Marcela Sulak reads from the following passage:

"Photograph: Left to right: Grandpapa Jacquo and Uncle Sicourelle, Cairo Train Station, 1946. That’s Grandpapa Jacquo, to the left of the uncle: Tall, slightly stooped, smirking like the best man at a wedding."

Ronit Matalon was born in Ganei Tikva, Israel, the daughter of Egyptian-Jewish immigrants. She covered Gaza and the West Bank for Haaretz newspaper between 1987 and 1993. She lives in Tel Aviv and teaches literature at the University of Haifa. She has published 8 novels in Hebrew, two of which are translated into English.

Texts:The One Facing Us: A Novel by Ronit Matalon. Translated by Marsha Weinstein. Metropolitan Books, 1998

Further reading:Bliss by Ronit Matalon, Translated by Jessica Cohen, Metropolitan Books, 2013.

Music:Tiki Dayan - Tachanat RakevetIhsan Al Munzer - The Joy Of Lina (Farha)

Ronit Matalon’s first novel to be translated into English is organized around 17 snapshots from an imaginary photo album. This kaleidoscopic family mosaic chronicles the disintegration of an Egyptian-Jewish clan after WWII, when its members are dispersed from Cairo to Israel, New York, and Cameroon. Host Marcela Sulak reads from the following passage:

"Photograph: Left to right: Grandpapa Jacquo and Uncle Sicourelle, Cairo Train Station, 1946. That’s Grandpapa Jacquo, to the left of the uncle: Tall, slightly stooped, smirking like the best man at a wedding."

Ronit Matalon was born in Ganei Tikva, Israel, the daughter of Egyptian-Jewish immigrants. She covered Gaza and the West Bank for Haaretz newspaper between 1987 and 1993. She lives in Tel Aviv and teaches literature at the University of Haifa. She has published 8 novels in Hebrew, two of which are translated into English.

Texts:
The One Facing Us: A Novel by Ronit Matalon. Translated by Marsha Weinstein. Metropolitan Books, 1998

Further reading:
Bliss by Ronit Matalon, Translated by Jessica Cohen, Metropolitan Books, 2013.

Music:
Tiki Dayan - Tachanat Rakevet
Ihsan Al Munzer - The Joy Of Lina (Farha)

"People of the Galilee are strong as the sunRough as the terebinth tender as the oakFiery as the fires of SodomSodden as the salt of the seaSo far from their bodies."

Host Marcela Sulak reads some of the poetry of Israeli Druze poet Naim Araidi, who passed away on October 2 this year. Araidi was born in 1950 in the Druze Village of Maghar in the Galilee and received his PhD in Hebrew Literature from Bar-Ilan University. Like another Arab-Israeli writer, Anton Shammas, Araidi chose to write in Hebrew as well as Arabic.

Among the legacies of Naim Araidi is the Nissan organization for Literature, which he established in 1999. The international Nissan Festival is held annually in April in Maghar, his native village. This village of Maghar is said to have the highest density of poets per capita — 17 in a population of 1,000.

Texts:Back to the Village by Naim Araidi, translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Herzlia: Levant, 1994.“What Shall We Say to Whom,” translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Jerusalem Review, 5-6, 2006. 154-158.“Jerusalem Divides,” translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Jerusalem Review, no 8. 2015, 13-14.Other poems forthcoming in Jerusalem Review, January, 2016.

Music:Riad El Sonbati - Ya Nassini (performed by the Jewish-Arab Orchestra)Jamil Bey Tanburi- Samai Shad Araban (performed by the Jewish-Arab Orchestra)Sovu Be Machol - Debka DruzitNadech Seisi - (Unknown)

"People of the Galilee are strong as the sun
Rough as the terebinth tender as the oak
Fiery as the fires of Sodom
Sodden as the salt of the sea
So far from their bodies."

Host Marcela Sulak reads some of the poetry of Israeli Druze poet Naim Araidi, who passed away on October 2 this year. Araidi was born in 1950 in the Druze Village of Maghar in the Galilee and received his PhD in Hebrew Literature from Bar-Ilan University. Like another Arab-Israeli writer, Anton Shammas, Araidi chose to write in Hebrew as well as Arabic.

Among the legacies of Naim Araidi is the Nissan organization for Literature, which he established in 1999. The international Nissan Festival is held annually in April in Maghar, his native village. This village of Maghar is said to have the highest density of poets per capita — 17 in a population of 1,000.

Texts:
Back to the Village by Naim Araidi, translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Herzlia: Levant, 1994.
“What Shall We Say to Whom,” translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Jerusalem Review, 5-6, 2006. 154-158.
“Jerusalem Divides,” translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Jerusalem Review, no 8. 2015, 13-14.
Other poems forthcoming in Jerusalem Review, January, 2016.

Music:
Riad El Sonbati - Ya Nassini (performed by the Jewish-Arab Orchestra)
Jamil Bey Tanburi- Samai Shad Araban (performed by the Jewish-Arab Orchestra)
Sovu Be Machol - Debka Druzit
Nadech Seisi - (Unknown)

"Yesterday I dreamt how the Nile rolled over its banksand I saw the Delta inscribed upon the waters.As I was still looking for other estuaries I suddenly beheldinterpretations on my palmsand between furrow and furrowa white line of snow stood outand the Delta was trampled by the running."

Host Marcela Sulak reads an excerpt from the poem “We’re Children of Atlantis,” by Baghdad-born poet Amira Hess. Its allusions to Noah’s ark are fitting for the immanent season of rain, as well as for the parsha of Noah that was recently read in synagogue.

Hess, not to be confused with journalist Amira Hass, was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and arrived in Israel in 1951, first living in an immigrant transit camp, and then moving to Jerusalem, where she still lives today.

Her translator, Ammiel Alcalay, says of her poetry that it is often written in an almost hallucinatory language of the Prophets, but the demons that have come to inhabit their figures of speech reflect and refract other realities, like in a hall of mirrors. Sudden shifts in tone cut across thousands of years.

Text:Keys to the Garden: New Israeli Writing. Edited by Ammiel Alcalay, City Lights, 1996.

Music:Toshiro Mayuzumi - Abraham, The Alliance with GodTarabband - Baghdad Choby (Live)Ramin Djawadi - House Of Black And White

"Yesterday I dreamt how the Nile rolled over its banks
and I saw the Delta inscribed upon the waters.
As I was still looking for other estuaries I suddenly beheld
interpretations on my palms
and between furrow and furrow
a white line of snow stood out
and the Delta was trampled by the running."

Host Marcela Sulak reads an excerpt from the poem “We’re Children of Atlantis,” by Baghdad-born poet Amira Hess. Its allusions to Noah’s ark are fitting for the immanent season of rain, as well as for the parsha of Noah that was recently read in synagogue.

Hess, not to be confused with journalist Amira Hass, was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and arrived in Israel in 1951, first living in an immigrant transit camp, and then moving to Jerusalem, where she still lives today.

Her translator, Ammiel Alcalay, says of her poetry that it is often written in an almost hallucinatory language of the Prophets, but the demons that have come to inhabit their figures of speech reflect and refract other realities, like in a hall of mirrors. Sudden shifts in tone cut across thousands of years.

Text:
Keys to the Garden: New Israeli Writing. Edited by Ammiel Alcalay, City Lights, 1996.

Music:
Toshiro Mayuzumi - Abraham, The Alliance with God
Tarabband - Baghdad Choby (Live)
Ramin Djawadi - House Of Black And White

In this episode, host Marcela Sulak reads an excerpt from Yitzhak Gormezano Goren's Alexandrian Summer, his first novel to be translated into English. In this semi-autobiographical work, Robby, aged ten and accompanied by his parents, leaves his home in Alexandria in 1951 to rejoin his two brothers who had already moved to Israel.

In this extract, three generations of the family are sitting together in their home in Alexandria, reading a letter from Robby's brothers about what life is like in Israel. Robby's grandmother thinks it sounds a little primitive:

“They say that people work in construction in Palestine. Yes, even educated boys. A grandson of mine, putting his hand inside the cemento? Wy-di-mi-no!”

André Aciman says in his introduction to the novel, "Alexandrian Summer is a nostalgic, farewell portrait of a world that was fast expiring but still refused to see that history had written it off."

Text:Alexandrian Summer, Yitzhak Gormezano Goren. Translated Yardenne Greenspan. New Vessel Press, 2015.

Music:Dalida - Salma Ya SalamaFarid Al Atrash - WayakUmm Kulthoum - Enta Omri

In this episode, host Marcela Sulak reads an excerpt from Yitzhak Gormezano Goren's Alexandrian Summer, his first novel to be translated into English. In this semi-autobiographical work, Robby, aged ten and accompanied by his parents, leaves his home in Alexandria in 1951 to rejoin his two brothers who had already moved to Israel.

In this extract, three generations of the family are sitting together in their home in Alexandria, reading a letter from Robby's brothers about what life is like in Israel. Robby's grandmother thinks it sounds a little primitive:

“They say that people work in construction in Palestine. Yes, even educated boys. A grandson of mine, putting his hand inside the cemento? Wy-di-mi-no!”

André Aciman says in his introduction to the novel, "Alexandrian Summer is a nostalgic, farewell portrait of a world that was fast expiring but still refused to see that history had written it off."

Text:
Alexandrian Summer, Yitzhak Gormezano Goren. Translated Yardenne Greenspan. New Vessel Press, 2015.

Music:
Dalida - Salma Ya Salama
Farid Al Atrash - Wayak
Umm Kulthoum - Enta Omri