Israel in Translation

Called 'Lashonsky' for his comic wit, linguistic innovations and irrepressible puns, every child in Israel knows Avraham Shlonsky's version of the German Rumpelstiltskin fairytale: Utzli Gutzli.

His upbringing was one of religion and agricultural labor, which is evident in his work; host Marcela Sulak reads from his exquisite poem 'Toil,' which compares working the land to prayer.

Despite the fact that his poetry wasn't taught in Israeli schools because of his rebellion against Bialik's generation, together with Natan Alterman and Leah Goldberg, he influenced and aided many of the younger generation of poets and writers.

Text:

The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself, Ed. Burnshaw, Carmi, etc. al.Poems Found in Translation, A.Z. Foreman

Music:

Arik Lavie – Boker Tov (from Utzli Gutzli)Yaffa Yarkoni – No Caravan Of CamelsArik Einstein – Blue Handkerchief

Called 'Lashonsky' for his comic wit, linguistic innovations and irrepressible puns, every child in Israel knows Avraham Shlonsky's version of the German Rumpelstiltskin fairytale: Utzli Gutzli.

His upbringing was one of religion and agricultural labor, which is evident in his work; host Marcela Sulak reads from his exquisite poem 'Toil,' which compares working the land to prayer.

Despite the fact that his poetry wasn't taught in Israeli schools because of his rebellion against Bialik's generation, together with Natan Alterman and Leah Goldberg, he influenced and aided many of the younger generation of poets and writers.

Text:

The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself, Ed. Burnshaw, Carmi, etc. al.
Poems Found in Translation, A.Z. Foreman

Music:

Arik Lavie – Boker Tov (from Utzli Gutzli)
Yaffa Yarkoni – No Caravan Of Camels
Arik Einstein – Blue Handkerchief

Some know Natan Alterman as an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist and translator who deeply influenced socialist zionist politics.

Others might know that his song "Kalaniot" served as a code to warn against British forces during the Mandate Period.

But few know he brought the seeds of the marmande tomato to Israel, where it was the main species cultivated in the country until the 1960s.

Host Marcela Sulak reads his poem, The Silver Platter, inspired by Chaim Weizmann's 1947 claim: "A state is not handed to a people on a silver platter."

Text:

The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself, Ed. Burnshaw, Carmi, etc. al.

Music:

Kalanyot – sung by Shoshana Damari, composed by Moshe Valensky

The Never-ending Rendezvous – sung by Arik Einstein, composed by Neomi Shemer

Some know Natan Alterman as an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist and translator who deeply influenced socialist zionist politics.

Others might know that his song "Kalaniot" served as a code to warn against British forces during the Mandate Period.

But few know he brought the seeds of the marmande tomato to Israel, where it was the main species cultivated in the country until the 1960s.

Host Marcela Sulak reads his poem, The Silver Platter, inspired by Chaim Weizmann's 1947 claim: "A state is not handed to a people on a silver platter."

Text:

The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself, Ed. Burnshaw, Carmi, etc. al.

Music:

Kalanyot – sung by Shoshana Damari, composed by Moshe Valensky

The Never-ending Rendezvous – sung by Arik Einstein, composed by Neomi Shemer

Yocheved Bat Miriam is unique among Hebrew language poets for holding the land of her birth and the land of her life in equal esteem. Born in Russia in 1901, she published her first book of poetry, Merahok ("From a distance"), in Palestine in 1929.

A critic has said of her work, "One always feels a vibrant tension between daring syntax and astonishing metaphorical leaps on the one hand, and artful, conservative prosody on the other." Perhaps because her work is challenging only two of her poems have been translated into English, including this from Cranes from the Threshold.

She stopped writing poetry after she lost her only son in the 1948 War of Independence, but later went on to be awarded the Brenner, Bialik and Israel prizes.

Text:

The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself, Ed. Burnshaw, Carmi, etc. al.

Poems Found in Translation (blog), A.Z. Foreman

Music:

The Same Streets Again – Tzila Daga

Cranes – written by Rasul Gamzatov, translated into Russian by Naum Grebnyov

Yocheved Bat Miriam is unique among Hebrew language poets for holding the land of her birth and the land of her life in equal esteem. Born in Russia in 1901, she published her first book of poetry, Merahok ("From a distance"), in Palestine in 1929.

A critic has said of her work, "One always feels a vibrant tension between daring syntax and astonishing metaphorical leaps on the one hand, and artful, conservative prosody on the other." Perhaps because her work is challenging only two of her poems have been translated into English, including this from Cranes from the Threshold.

She stopped writing poetry after she lost her only son in the 1948 War of Independence, but later went on to be awarded the Brenner, Bialik and Israel prizes.

Text:

The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself, Ed. Burnshaw, Carmi, etc. al.

Poems Found in Translation (blog), A.Z. Foreman

Music:

The Same Streets Again – Tzila Daga

Cranes – written by Rasul Gamzatov, translated into Russian by Naum Grebnyov

Manger Street is a 'crook' of a street in North Tel Aviv, the kind of street you find only when you're looking for something else – perfect for our Yiddish-speaking prankster Itzik Manger.Born in Chernovitz in 1901, Itzik Manger was kicked out of school and into Yiddish theater. He reset the Bible story of Esther in contemporary Eastern Europe, casting a tailor (his father's profession) as the hero, in his most scandalous and popular literary work: The Songs of the Megillah. Manger claimed of his story, "When a tailor tells it, it's told as it ought to be told."

In 1938 Manger left Warsaw, where he had spent a happy ten years at the epicenter of Yiddish culture, for Paris. From there he went to Marseilles, to Nice, then Liverpool and finally London. After 11 years in London Manger had become a British citizen, but in 1959 he made aliyah and spent the rest of his life in Israel. Manger managed to break through Israel's pro-Hebrew bias into the mainstream with his Yiddish tales, and counted Golda Meir among his supporters.

Music:

Songs of the Megillah (The Broadway production)

Karsten Troyke and Claudia Koch – Oyfn Veg Shteyt A Boym

Manger Street is a 'crook' of a street in North Tel Aviv, the kind of street you find only when you're looking for something else – perfect for our Yiddish-speaking prankster Itzik Manger.
Born in Chernovitz in 1901, Itzik Manger was kicked out of school and into Yiddish theater. He reset the Bible story of Esther in contemporary Eastern Europe, casting a tailor (his father's profession) as the hero, in his most scandalous and popular literary work: The Songs of the Megillah. Manger claimed of his story, "When a tailor tells it, it's told as it ought to be told."

In 1938 Manger left Warsaw, where he had spent a happy ten years at the epicenter of Yiddish culture, for Paris. From there he went to Marseilles, to Nice, then Liverpool and finally London. After 11 years in London Manger had become a British citizen, but in 1959 he made aliyah and spent the rest of his life in Israel. Manger managed to break through Israel's pro-Hebrew bias into the mainstream with his Yiddish tales, and counted Golda Meir among his supporters.

Music:

Songs of the Megillah (The Broadway production)

Karsten Troyke and Claudia Koch – Oyfn Veg Shteyt A Boym

Yud Lamed Peretz Street lies in the Southern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Florentine. Although now bearing the fruits of gentrification, the area still retains the mix of residential and industrial with which it was founded.

I.L.Peretz failed at distilling whiskey and had his law license revoked by the Imperial Russian Authorities, before he became the most influential Yiddish language writer of his time.He believed in the inevitability of progress through enlightenment, and 100,000 mourners attended his funeral in Warsaw in 1915.

Book: The I. L. Peretz Reader, edited and introduced by Ruth R. Wisse, Yale University Press, 2002.

Music: A Night in the Old Marketplace (Frank London & Glen Berger)

Yud Lamed Peretz Street lies in the Southern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Florentine. Although now bearing the fruits of gentrification, the area still retains the mix of residential and industrial with which it was founded.

I.L.Peretz failed at distilling whiskey and had his law license revoked by the Imperial Russian Authorities, before he became the most influential Yiddish language writer of his time.
He believed in the inevitability of progress through enlightenment, and 100,000 mourners attended his funeral in Warsaw in 1915.

Book: The I. L. Peretz Reader, edited and introduced by Ruth R. Wisse, Yale University Press, 2002.

Music: A Night in the Old Marketplace (Frank London & Glen Berger)