blog, israeli politics, poetry

I was waiting for the obituaries on Zach – it took people  a week to get it together and then everybody started talking.  Two main points that were repeated with the greatest frequency: 1. he was a very nasty man 2. He absolutely changed the face  of Hebrew poetry and even the way language is used.  I want to add another – his magic is impossible to translate.  I know he’s been translated, but I can’t find his magic in translation.   How do I know?  I’ve failed again and again.  His ability to fill simple words of every day speech with meaning and feeling was unparalleled.  here is one example.  

 

In the evening

when my girl said

get going

I went down the street to go

And I would go

and get confounded

go and get confounded

 

i opened the book of “Shirim Shomin” – Different poems, or Strange Poems – in 1974 – and this was the first poem, my first experience with poetry that could be called ‘modern’ in Hebrew.  No rhyme, no meter.  Only an incredibly beautiful sound that leads to incredibly beautiful sadness.

November 14, 2020 – Natan Zach Read Post »

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“you can’t have love in a society that doesn’t love”: click here to hear me speak with Shlomi Hatuka

 

Shlomi broadcast this conversation a few months ago and now made it into a podcast.  I don’t like listening to myself, and heard in this dialogue in Hebrew that I was breathless all the time, and didn’t read very well.  But the subjects were fascinating.  Shlomi is very active in the Yemenite community and has been very prominent in the movement to uncover the truth about Yemenite children who disappeared after they were brought to Israel.  And yet we talked about what it is like to be a witness to the first generation.  it is nothing like second generation because it doesn’t talk about the effects on the individual, but it concentrate on witnessing the effects on survivors.  And then suddenly he shifted the subject to my next book in Hebrew, about love and sex.  And now that I think of it, my answer was the same as the previous subject.  I have a need to transmit what I witness.  

november 14, 2020 – A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOLOCAUST AND LOVE Read Post »

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what did we discover in the languages we didn’t understand – the music of poetry. We still have to edit the video to make sure the Iranian participant is protected, but having the Persian wash over us, the Slovak, , the Hebrew, and the Yiddish, forced us to listen to sounds, and how words make music in and of themselves. When we actually have the film, we’ll post it.  Watch the faces of the participants – they are entranced.  I’ve been to zoom meetings where you watch people dying of boredom and maybe suddenly you hear the sound of snoring.  Here, everyone was leaning forward – trying to catch the words. 

november 13, 2020 – found in translation Read Post »

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Sometimes when we don’t know a language well, we lose something when we hear the poetry, but sometimes if we listen we gain something more, the music of the poem. So even though we’ll be explaining and translating these poems, the poets will give us their untranslatable music. We hope you’ll join us for this special occasion.  Please register here  

a link will be sent to you on the day of the event.

 

november 9, 2020 – found in translation Read Post »

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nah. i’ve been corssing my fingers to keep from biting my nails. but whatever happens there is no way we will go back to facts and truth. my entire education was spent in building knowledge on knowledge, working from solid ground, etc. and now i am not even sure of the ground on which i stand. nobody has slept tonight. not only because of who wins but what will emerge from the reaction of the people.

i’m going to the beach

november 4, 2020 – will we go back to believing in truth? Read Post »

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Whatever we think will happen today, if you, like me, are terrified of the world outside, let’s cultivate our garden – inside and out. I think I’m going to stop dreaming about all the places I want to go and make my study an exotic country. And there I will create the Innisfree that Yeats always wanted to go back to but was most of the time somewhere else.

(I just mentioned this to my partner and he exploded – and left the room in the middle of my explanation. So much for nesting.

Up to now we were doing fine together.

All I wanted to do is a tiny bit of remodeling. Tell me – do i have to refrain from painting a tiny wall yellow in order to save my marriage?

p.s. Perhaps one should never write in haste. He just came back and offered to help.

november 3, 2020 – this is the time to nest Read Post »

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all day yesterday and today i find myself on zoom – on all kinds of issues.  but the subject keeps coming back to the US elections.  Everyone is terrified.  whatever happens, it’s not good.

but it’s never been good.  Suddenly i remembered that the cousin who enabled our immigration to the US, the democratic senator from Connecticut, Abraham Ribikoff, was called a ‘f— jew’ by Mayor Daly of Chicago during the Democratic convention in the ’60’s.  Suddenly I remember the terror in the ’50’s when the Rosenbergs were executed.  Anything can happen.

election day blues Read Post »

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as soon as they opened the hairdressers I went. there are some pretty severe conditions to their opening that made me agree to go, my stylist is in the brodetsky strip mall and the others stores haven’t been allowed yet to open, so i was feeling pretty safe. But in the minutes after i got there I watched the gradual opening. one after another the shops turned on their lights, opened the doors – some only the back door. And there was the official, running from shop to shop and distributing the tickets of 5000 shekel each. For some of them it was probably worth it. They were mobbed. The shoemaker, though, was smart enough to work with a locked door and no lights – i can imagine how the shoes turned out.

what we know is that the corona numbers are up, and after today, they will be higher and higher. We’re just too hungry for a ‘normal’ life.

and by the way, i hate my new haircut.

november 2, 2020 – shopping and the numbers Read Post »