The English Department at
Talpiot Academic College
Invites you to a Poetry Reading by
Prof. Karen Alkalay-Gut
“Poetry is meant to be heard, not just read.” |
When: Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Time: 13:00-14:00
if you want to come, let me know.
december 3, 2020 – a reading or two Read Post »
it took Gantz a long long time to come down to the level of Bibi. It wasn’t just like sitting down to a game of checkers that turned out to be chess. because it wasn’t just chess, it was kick-chess – with kicks under the table going to all kinds of sensitive places. And you’ve been trained not to show pain.
But now that Gantz has turned over the table and shouted out that he’s not playing any more he’s being blamed for breaking up the government. He doesn’t even have to keep good records for the times he was kicked, because most of the time it was very visible. Bibi is never subtle but never apologetic. So what Gantz has to do is start smiling together with all the other parties – even Labor, and his recent enemy Lapid, and some of the Arab parties – especially Ahmed Tibi. He can’t even pretend to be a leader after he’s been the gentleman with a ruffian.
How many of us personally have been in that same situation. Someone bullies us and we try to smooth our way out of it. There was once a survey of rape in New York City and it concluded that Jewish women get raped far more than minority women because they get into situations they think they can talk their way out of, when other women just don’t go there.
december 3, 2020 – elections Read Post »
Even though I used to sit with Natan Yonatan for hours and I translated many poems with him, I could never get this one right. And I still can’t. But now I understand what he was writing about. Here, where the Hadera River meets the sea, the sand in summer is carried in by the waves and blocks the river, which flows sluggishly for lack of rain. In the winter it would open up when the flow got stronger. But now the sand is cleared and the river is more powerful and there is no more blockage. This phenomenon was also true of the Yarkon river in Tel Aviv. Ezi says that camels would cross the roadway between the river and the sea.
anyway I am still not sure i’ve got the poem right. Natan wanted me always to adjust the translation to the music, but that was impossible – since the accents in hebrew fall differently.
check it out here with Arik Einstein.
december 2, natan yonatan and sdot yam (continued) Read Post »
leaving Sdot Yam today, we came upon this sculpture – with chimes and a few lines of the poem written by Natan Yonatan in this place. The poem, in my translation, is here:
Shores are sometimes longings for a stream it loved.
I saw a shore once
Forsaken by the stream
With broken heart of stones and sand.
And a person too may
be left bereft and without strength
Just like the shore.
The sea shells too
Like shores or the spirit,
The shards are also sometimes longings
For a home we always loved
And only the sea
Sings its song alone.
Thus within the shards of one’s heart
Past youth sings out.
December 1, 2020 – Natan Yonatan and sdot yam Read Post »
Ezi spent a day making a Dobos torte for Oren’s birthday. I was so hoping we’d get our whole family together to celebrate it, but we couldn’t seem to get our times together. Maybe my madness is coming out – that i’m afraid of my own grandchildren, my own children, and wasn’t assertive enough about the times. I’ve noticed my increasing paranoia, my fear of going out to Jaffa, my hunger for communication ameliorated by the occasional zoom. All along, I thought I was as sane as could be expected. Thank goodness we’re going on the Israel Trail tomorrow. Even though it is really hard to hike with a mask, it’s still more sane to commune with nature…
never mind – we’ll still have a birthday party – and many more – this is a month of family birthdays, and we have to celebrate a few before the next shutdown.
november 30, 2020 – oren’s birthday Read Post »
i’m trying out a few new poems – maybe drafts i will erase soon.
can you let me know what you think?
november 29. 2020 – a poem or two Read Post »
When my late mother-in-law would travel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in the 1920’s, she would set out with her family in the late afternoon, after the hot sun had begun to descend, so the horses would not get tired. hear. By the evening they would reach the inn at Shaar Ha’Gai, Bab El Wad, and sleep there. Early in the morning they would begin the ascent to Jerusalem, where her grandparents lived (On Yaffo Road, in the building with the lions where the police station is now). Last year we drove there (30 minutes from Tel Aviv) and found that the inn was undergoing renovations. I didn’t think about the song, “Bab El Wad,” from the War of Independence and the battle for Jerusalem. Bab El Wad was the gate to the city.
באב אל וואד,
לנצח זכור נא את שמותינו,
שיירות פרצו בדרך אל העיר.
בצידי הדרך מוטלים מתינו.
שלד הברזל שותק כמוי רעי
Bab al Wad
remember our names forever
convoys broke through on the way to the city
Our dead lie on the roadsides
The iron skeleton is as silent as my mates.
Today the building has been commemorated as a national memorial. I forgot to mention that the poem “Bad El Wad” was written by Haim Guri, the poet of the Palmach generation. I wonder what he would have thought of the opening ceremony – he would probably have loved the fact that history was being foregrounded but hated the fact that the right had co-opted history.
november 29, 2020 – Bab el wad Read Post »
When the sun came out this afternoon, around noon, I really wanted to go for a walk. But not where there were people. I was really paranoid about this part. People have become our enemy.
Anyway, Ezi drove to Jaffa. He wanted to see what was left of his grandfather’s hangars – but there was really nothing to see. I don’t know what the plans for the future are instead of those hangars – but they look really big. And people were celebrating everywhere. Look how gorgeous: 
november 28, 2020 – when the sun came out today – Jaffa Read Post »
