Israel In Translation

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Sinopse

Exploring Israeli literature in English translation. Host Marcela Sulak takes you through Israels literary countryside, cityscapes, and psychological terrain, and the lives of the people who create it.

Episódios

  • Yom Kippur's Poetry of Awe

    01/10/2014 Duração: 07min

    Today we explore Yom Kippur through the poetry of Yehuda Amichai and Shelley Elkayam, and the music of Leonard Cohen and Chayim Moshe. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, when God seals the verdict on each person's fate for the coming year in the Book of Life. Amichai's poem refers to the 'Ne'ila' - the closing prayer, shortly before sunset, when heaven’s 'gates of prayer' will be closed for the year. The subject has a moving encounter with an "Arab’s hole-in-the-wall shop" near Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, which reminds him of his father's shop that was burned down. Shelley Elkayam is an eighth-generation native of Haifa, from a bilingual Ladino-/Hebrew-speaking family. The excerpt from her poem 'Yes Indeed I’ll Answer God' is written from the point of view of God. It ends: "Enough. / This is judgment. / And I take the verdict upon myself / at its word." Texts: 'Keys to the Garden: New Israeli Writing.' Edited and translated by Ammiel Alcalay. City Lights Books, 1996. 'The Selected Poetry of

  • Haim Gouri's Piyyut for Rosh Hashanah

    24/09/2014 Duração: 07min

    Born in Tel Aviv in 1923, Haim Gouri is a poet, novelist, documentary film maker, journalist, and the author of a book on the Jerusalem trial of Adolf Eichmann. During World War II, Gouri joined the elite strike force of the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary force operating during Mandate Palestine, called the 'Palmach.' He was sent to Hungary to help holocaust survivors come to Palestine. This experience inspired Gouri’s documentary film The 81st Blow, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1974. Gouri's first book of poetry, published in 1949, is heavily influenced by his experience in the Palmach during the war of 1948. His later books become more abstract. Today Marcela Sulak reads from his poems 'Current Account' and 'Piyyut for Rosh Hashanah,' which both deal with themes of justice and repentance at Jewish new year. Here are the final lines from 'Current Account': "And again, as always in the Land of Israel, / the stones remember. / The earth does not cover. / Justice cuts through the mountains." Te

  • Rivka Miriam on asking forgiveness

    17/09/2014 Duração: 06min

    We're now in the month of Elul, the last month in the Jewish calendar, which leads up to the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur festivals. We explore Elul's themes of creation and forgiveness through two poems by Rivka Miriam. Rivka Miriam was a Jerusalem-born child prodigy, who has gone on to publish 12 collections of poetry, two collections of short stories, and several children’s books. According to her mother, her parents were among the 20 out of a population of 6,000 from their home town in Poland to survive the Holocaust. Rivka Miriam’s poetry is touched by both gratitude and loss. Writer David Grossman says, “Her Hebrew is a singular combination of all the levels of the language, ancient as well as new.” Here are the last lines of her poem about Elul: "Only forgiveness itself / blurred as the line between dusk and sunset / fell on its knees before itself." Text: These Mountains: Selected Poems of Rivka Miriam. Translated by Linda Stern Zisquit. Toby Press, 2009. Music: Arik Einstein - Jewish Autum Rali Marga

  • Yehuda Amichai's 'Wildpeace'

    10/09/2014 Duração: 08min

    Yehuda Amichai is probably the most widely translated Hebrew poet since King David. He says, “I grew up in a very religious household... So the prayers, the language of prayer itself became a kind of natural language for me.” But Amichai revised the national, Biblical narrative into a personal love story, making space for individual agency and narrative freedom. Born Ludwig Pfueffer in Wurzburg, Germany, Amichai immigrated to Israel with his family in 1935, aged 11. He fought in the 1956 Sinai War and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, between and after which he began to publish novels and poetry, under the name Yehuda Amichai, which means “my people lives.” His poetic series Jerusalem 1967 shows the marks these wars left on him and on the country. Host Marcela Sulak recites the poem 'Wildpeace,' translated by Amichai along with British poet Ted Hughes, whose last stanza reads: "Let it come / like wildflowers, / suddenly, because the field / must have it: wildpeace. Text: Yehuda Amichai: Poems of Jerusalem and Love

  • The 'pessoptimist' who worked for coexistence

    03/09/2014 Duração: 07min

    Born in Haifa in 1922, Emile Habibi worked in the city's oil refinery before moving to the Palestinian broadcasting station in Jerusalem. Habibi was a lone voice calling for the acceptance of the UN plan for the division of Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. Soon after the creation of Israel, he became a political activist, serving in the Knesset for 20 years. After the shock of the six-day war of 1967, Habibi’s writing turned to satire and bitter humor. In 1974 he published The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist. Acknowledging a debt to Lawrence Sterne and Voltaire, the heavily-footnoted novel tells the story of Palestinians in Israel to date. Marcela reads a passage in which the protagonist describes a 'pessoptimist.' In 1990, Habibi received the Al-Quds Prize from the PLO. In 1992, he received the Israel Prize for Arabic literature. His willingness to accept both prizes reflected his belief in coexistence; he said, "A dialogue of prizes is better than a dialogue of stones and bullets." Emile Hab

  • Neomi Shemer

    20/08/2014 Duração: 10min

    Naomi Shemer is “The first lady of Israeli song and poetry.” She wroteJeruslaem of Gold” in 1967 and it became the unofficial second anthem of Israel after the Six-Day War and the reunification of Jerusalem. Text: Jerusalem of Gold. Translated by Chaya Galai Music: Ishtar, The Eucalyptus GroveYossi Banai, For all these things”Shuli Nata, Jerusalem of Gold,Ofra Haza, Jerusalem of Gold

  • Sholem Aleichem: 'The Jewish Mark Twain'

    13/08/2014 Duração: 07min

    Having grown up in a shtetl near Kiev, Sholem Aleichem wrote about the extreme poverty, pettiness and greatness of shtetl life, as well as the threat of conscription into the Russian army, pogroms and intermarriage. But, like the American author Mark Twain, he addressed dark subject-matter in such a light-hearted manner that the reader often did not realize their attention was being fixed on great suffering and injustice. When Mark Twain heard of the writer called 'the Jewish Mark Twain,' he replied, "Please tell him that I am the American Sholem Aleichem." Among Sholem Aleichem's quirks was a fear of the number 13; he gave his manuscripts a page '12a' instead of a '13,' and perhaps with good reason - he died on May '12a' 1916 at the age of 57. And it appears to be a genuine coincidence that this show should air on August '12a' 2014. We think he would see the funny side. 100,000 mourners attended his funeral at Old Mount Carmel cemetery in Queens, New York, in the largest funeral to date in the history of New

  • Mendele Mocher Sforim

    06/08/2014 Duração: 07min

    The grandfather of Yiddish literature, and one of the founders of “modern” Jewish literature, Mendele Mocher Sforim. He "wanted to be useful to his people rather than gain literary laurels,” and his satirical, critical stories got him chased from town. Text: Of Bygone Days - translated by Rayomond P. Scheindlin. In A Shtetle and Other Yiddish Novellas” ed. Ruth Wisse. Wayne State University Press, 1986. Music: Avraimi der Marvicher, performed by Chava AlbersteinDi Goldene Pave by Ana Margolin, performed by The Klezmatics & Chava Alberstein

  • Ruth the Moabite: Judaism's most famous convert

    30/07/2014 Duração: 07min

    'Ruth' is a little street in Tel Aviv, nested near Dizengoff Square and off the other little streets named after Biblical heroines such as 'Esther HaMalka.' Both Ruth and Esther were immigrants, and so it's appropriate that the Ministry of Absorbtion for new immigrants should be located here. While Esther was a covert Jew, Ruth was the most famous convert to Judaism in history. As a Moabite, she was explicitly forbidden to marry an Israelite, but nevertheless she became the great-grandmother of King David. Jews read the Book of Ruth during the holiday of Shavuot. Today we hear Linda Zisquit’s lively translation of the first chapter, which for at least two years was placed on banners over Chen Boulevard in Tel Aviv between Passover and Shavuot. Text: The Book of Ruth - Introduction and free translation by Linda Zisquit Music: Michael Levy – King David’s Lyre, Echoes of Ancient IsraelAyelet Ori Benita – Cycles

  • The hymnal poet-paver of the roads of Israel

    23/07/2014 Duração: 05min

    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

  • Natan Alterman's agricultural contributions

    16/07/2014 Duração: 07min

    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, a poet on the threshold

    09/07/2014 Duração: 06min

    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

  • 'A story of heroes and villains, of sorrow and glory'

    01/07/2014 Duração: 05min

    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

  • A Yiddish tale of love, pogroms and Jewish mysticism

    25/06/2014 Duração: 06min

    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)

  • The founder of Cultural Zionism: Just one of the people

    18/06/2014 Duração: 05min

    Ahad Ha'am Street occupies the heart of Tel Aviv; it's full of grand Bauhaus buildings and artistic cafes, with Tel Aviv's Great Synagogue on the corner. Ahad Ha'am means "one of the people" in Hebrew, and is the pen name of Asher Zvi Ginzberg, the founder of Cultural Zionism. Lauded by such greats as Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first President, and Hayim Nahman Bialik, Israel's national poet, as an inspiration, Ahad Ha'am foresaw both the Israel/Palestine conflict AND the solution as early as 1891. Book: Ahad Ha'am (Asher Zvi Ginzberg), At the Crossroads (Selected Essays), February 2009 Music: I Live On Sheinkin (Gara Beshenkin) – Mango Here, In Our Fathers' Land (Po Beeretz Hemdat Avot) – IDF band and Orchestra Titina – Yona Atari, Yossi Banai and Avner Khizkiyahu

  • Young and strong and living through a big adventure

    11/06/2014 Duração: 07min

    Passing by Anne Frank St in Tel Aviv has inspired us to take a fresh look at the young diarist whose words inspired the world. Before she died in Bergen Belsen, Anne Frank said, "Despite everything, I believe that people are, at heart, really good." The English edition of her diary was introduced by Eleanor Roosevelt, and it was read by Nelson Mandela in prison for inspiration. Book: The Diary of a Young Girl. The Definitive Edition. By Anne Frank. Edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler. Translated by Susan Massotty. Bantam Books. Music: The Whole Story Soundtrack. Epilogue Composed by Graeme Revell and Orchestrated by Tim Simonec

  • The Renaissance Man from Odessa

    03/06/2014 Duração: 07min

    Shaul Tchernihovsky was a physician, linguist, naturalist, and poet who translated from 15 different literatures into Hebrew. Music: Shlomo Artzi - You don’t know Yarden Bar Kochva -They say there is a land Arik Lavie -I believe Book: The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself. Edited Burnshaw, Carmi, Glassman, Hirschfeld and Spicehandler. (Wayne State University 2003)

  • Defeating armies and taking names 

    28/05/2014 Duração: 05min

    How two Israeli women defeated a few ancient armies and saved the day — and then wrote a little poem about it. Today we explore the life and poetry of that force to be reckoned with, Deborah the Prophet. With sounds from: The Bible, narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier Composition for Vocal and Frame Drum by Ayalet Ori Benita

  • Yaakov Shabtai's vernacular

    21/05/2014 Duração: 07min

    Discover Yaakov Shabtai’s single-paragraph novel, Past Continuous, the first truly vernacular work in the Hebrew language. Find out how to build community housing out of shipping crates. Books: Past Continuous. A Novel. Translated Dalya Bilu. Tusk Ivories, 2002. Uncle Peretz Takes off. Short stories. Translated by Dalya Bilu. Overlook Books, 2004. Music: Arik Einstein - My White-throated Love Lior Eyney - Song of the Vineyard

  • A poet beloved by one and all

    14/05/2014 Duração: 06min

    The poet Zelda Schneersohn Mishkovsky was Amos Oz's first love, first cousin to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and beloved by all Israelis, religious or secular. Book: The Spectacular Difference: Selected Poems. Trans. Marcia Falk. Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College Press, 2004. Music: Chava Albertstein - Free time Chava Albertstein - Everyone has a name

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