Israel in Translation

Tal Nitzán is the author of five poetry books and one children's book, and the editor of three poetry anthologies. Born in Jaffa of Argentine descent, she has resided in Buenos Aires, Bogotá, and New York. Here is an extract from the poem 'Mountain High,' which depicts the tall, oppressive buildings of Tel Aviv, where Nitzán is currently living:

I went up to the roofone day in Maya day that spread upon the sky a sheetthe shade of mustard of an orange of an H-bomband the long arduous craving for rainrose as a howl from the parking lots

Host Marcela Sulak also reads Nitzan's poems 'Canary,' 'Grace,' and 'A Cart with a Mare' - the latter is set in the Gaza Strip and inspired by a Haaretz report by Amira Hass from May 2004.

Text:

Poetry International Rotterdam

Further Reading:

At the End of Sleep (Restless Books, 2014, e-book).To the Inner Court (with artist Tsibi Geva, Even Hoshen Books 2015).

Music:

Anat Gutman feat. Tal Nitzán - Mountain HighAvshalom Cohen - A Cart With A Mare (Agala Im Sussa)

Tal Nitzán is the author of five poetry books and one children's book, and the editor of three poetry anthologies. Born in Jaffa of Argentine descent, she has resided in Buenos Aires, Bogotá, and New York. Here is an extract from the poem 'Mountain High,' which depicts the tall, oppressive buildings of Tel Aviv, where Nitzán is currently living:

I went up to the roof
one day in May
a day that spread upon the sky a sheet
the shade of mustard of an orange of an H-bomb
and the long arduous craving for rain
rose as a howl from the parking lots

Host Marcela Sulak also reads Nitzan's poems 'Canary,' 'Grace,' and 'A Cart with a Mare' - the latter is set in the Gaza Strip and inspired by a Haaretz report by Amira Hass from May 2004.

Text:

Poetry International Rotterdam

Further Reading:

At the End of Sleep (Restless Books, 2014, e-book).
To the Inner Court (with artist Tsibi Geva, Even Hoshen Books 2015).

Music:

Anat Gutman feat. Tal Nitzán - Mountain High
Avshalom Cohen - A Cart With A Mare (Agala Im Sussa)

Years passed, memories settled and were invented, stories were told and sprouted different versions, and all the while the American sweeper sat in a locked bathroom in Nahalal.

Meir Shalev was born in the village of Nahalal, Israel’s first moshav, in 1948. He is the grandson of the amazing Grandma Tonia, who arrived in Palestine by boat from Russia in 1923, and who devoted her life to battling against the biggest enemy in the new land: Dirt.

Host Marcela Sulak reads from Shalev's memoir, My Russian Grandmother and her American Vacuum Cleaner, translated by Evan Fallenberg.

Texts:

My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner: A Family memoir, by Meir Shalev. Translated by Evan Fallenberg. Schocken Books, 2011.

Music:

Arik Einstein - HaTsarich HaZe (written by Yehonatan Gefen)HaKeves HaShisha Asar - KeShe Ehiye Gadol (written by Yehonatan Gefen)Yoni Rechter and Yehudit Ravitz - Layla Tov (written by Yehonatan Gefen)

Years passed, memories settled and were invented, stories were told and sprouted different versions, and all the while the American sweeper sat in a locked bathroom in Nahalal.

Meir Shalev was born in the village of Nahalal, Israel’s first moshav, in 1948. He is the grandson of the amazing Grandma Tonia, who arrived in Palestine by boat from Russia in 1923, and who devoted her life to battling against the biggest enemy in the new land: Dirt.

Host Marcela Sulak reads from Shalev's memoir, My Russian Grandmother and her American Vacuum Cleaner, translated by Evan Fallenberg.

Texts:

My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner: A Family memoir, by Meir Shalev. Translated by Evan Fallenberg. Schocken Books, 2011.

Music:

Arik Einstein - HaTsarich HaZe (written by Yehonatan Gefen)
HaKeves HaShisha Asar - KeShe Ehiye Gadol (written by Yehonatan Gefen)
Yoni Rechter and Yehudit Ravitz - Layla Tov (written by Yehonatan Gefen)

Dalia Betolin-Sherman was born in Ethiopia in 1979. In 1984 she crossed Sudan by foot and immigrated to Israel with her parents and sister.

Her short story collection, When the World Became White, came out in Hebrew in 2013. Host Marcela Sulak reads from one of its stories - “Circle of Friends” - translated by Ilana Kurshan.

Adva stands there looking at herself in the mirror of the girls’ bathroom... Today she has a special hairdo in honor of the performance, and she examines it from all angles... The rest of the girls cluster around her and try to push their way in. Some of them stand on their tip toes, and climb over each other, but everyone gets only a small section of the mirror. We are last. We wait until they and the ordinary girls leave. We don’t bother with the hair that sprouts wildly from our heads in a “fro,” as the other kids call it.

Find out what happens to Adva's beautiful hair during the performance...

Texts:

“Circle of Friends,” by Dalia Betolin Sherman, translated by Ilana Kurshan. The Ilanot Review.

Music:

The Idan Raichel Project - Shuvi El Beyti

The Idan Raichel Project - Milim Yaffot Me'Eleh

The Idan Raichel Project - Ayal Ayale

Dalia Betolin-Sherman was born in Ethiopia in 1979. In 1984 she crossed Sudan by foot and immigrated to Israel with her parents and sister.

Her short story collection, When the World Became White, came out in Hebrew in 2013. Host Marcela Sulak reads from one of its stories - “Circle of Friends” - translated by Ilana Kurshan.

Adva stands there looking at herself in the mirror of the girls’ bathroom... Today she has a special hairdo in honor of the performance, and she examines it from all angles... The rest of the girls cluster around her and try to push their way in. Some of them stand on their tip toes, and climb over each other, but everyone gets only a small section of the mirror. We are last. We wait until they and the ordinary girls leave. We don’t bother with the hair that sprouts wildly from our heads in a “fro,” as the other kids call it.

Find out what happens to Adva's beautiful hair during the performance...

Texts:

“Circle of Friends,” by Dalia Betolin Sherman, translated by Ilana Kurshan. The Ilanot Review.

Music:

The Idan Raichel Project - Shuvi El Beyti

The Idan Raichel Project - Milim Yaffot Me'Eleh

The Idan Raichel Project - Ayal Ayale

“Ezra, what would you call the story told by my violin?” Ezra was silent... When he got up to leave, a phrase from one of the dawn hymns occurred to him and stood in front of him, pleading. He said to Rahamim, “I would call it, The Dawning of the Day.”

Host Marcela Sulak reads from Haim Sabato's story, The Dawning of the Day, in honor of Shavuot - the Jewish festival that celebrates the giving of the Torah by God to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai. We hear about two friends who end up avidly studying the Torah together: Rahamim, a gifted, blind violinist, and his friend Ezra who comes to clean his house and tell him stories.

Texts:

Haim Sabato, The Dawning of the Day: A Jerusalem Tale. Translated by Yaacab Dwek. The Toby Press, 2008.

Music:

Shishu Vesimchu Besimchat Chag - Shirei ShavuotThe Spielberg Jewish Film Archive - Palestine In Song And DanceKabbalah Music - Yah Ribon 'OlamOfra Haza - Im Nin'Alu

“Ezra, what would you call the story told by my violin?” Ezra was silent... When he got up to leave, a phrase from one of the dawn hymns occurred to him and stood in front of him, pleading. He said to Rahamim, “I would call it, The Dawning of the Day.”

Host Marcela Sulak reads from Haim Sabato's story, The Dawning of the Day, in honor of Shavuot - the Jewish festival that celebrates the giving of the Torah by God to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai. We hear about two friends who end up avidly studying the Torah together: Rahamim, a gifted, blind violinist, and his friend Ezra who comes to clean his house and tell him stories.

Texts:

Haim Sabato, The Dawning of the Day: A Jerusalem Tale. Translated by Yaacab Dwek. The Toby Press, 2008.

Music:

Shishu Vesimchu Besimchat Chag - Shirei Shavuot
The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive - Palestine In Song And Dance
Kabbalah Music - Yah Ribon 'Olam
Ofra Haza - Im Nin'Alu

“... Hanging by a thread, my fathers jostle together, A sleeve of Hispania cloth permeated with the scent of jasmine On an austere robe from the lands of years gone by On a breeze bearing blows, payes and pelts…”

So reads a section from “Fathers,” a poem by Tel Aviv-born novelist, poet, and theater director Michal Govrin, whose poetry our host Marcela Sulak introduces to us today. The daughter of an Israeli pioneer father and a mother who survived the Holocaust, Govrin’s work is concerned with the legacy of trauma left to children of Holocaust survivors.

Govrin has described her poems as the flowers of a desert plant with very deep roots; some have roots as deep as fifteen feet, but when we see the flower we never imagine how much of the plant remains invisible to the eye.

“... Hanging by a thread, my fathers jostle together,
A sleeve of Hispania cloth permeated with the scent of jasmine
On an austere robe from the lands of years gone by
On a breeze bearing blows, payes and pelts…”

So reads a section from “Fathers,” a poem by Tel Aviv-born novelist, poet, and theater director Michal Govrin, whose poetry our host Marcela Sulak introduces to us today. The daughter of an Israeli pioneer father and a mother who survived the Holocaust, Govrin’s work is concerned with the legacy of trauma left to children of Holocaust survivors.

Govrin has described her poems as the flowers of a desert plant with very deep roots; some have roots as deep as fifteen feet, but when we see the flower we never imagine how much of the plant remains invisible to the eye.