Article
Welcome to Israeli poetry - August 2004
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January 18, 2006
Masalha and Amir share other characteristics, so that their similarities are greater than their differences. First, their approach to the complex quarrel between the two peoples in whose midst they live is humanistic, striving to understand and accept the other. Even though as poets they cannot change political reality, their writing serves to record genuine feelings, rather than slogans, about the conditions under which they write.
Secondly, despite the quality, originality, rich use of language, and engaging topicality in their writing, both Amir and Masalha have not received the amount of attention they deserve. In Amir’s case this is due to the fact that she began to publish her poetry at a relatively later stage in life, with two books to date. In Masalha’s case, the great linguistic and national divide – which is also, without a doubt, a source of great cultural and spiritual richness – has created a situation in which he is better known to readers of Arabic poetry in Israel than to readers of Hebrew. In any case, PIW readers will easily perceive the great interest and potential in poetry by both Amir and Masalha. Presentation of their poetry together in one edition permits observers of contemporary Hebrew poetry to see two sides of the coin, two poets whose work should become better known outside the borders of their country.
{id="3177" title="Salman Masalha"}, poet and scholar, was born in 1953 in the Arab town of al-Maghar in northern Israel. In 1972 he moved to Jerusalem and has lived in the city ever since. Masalha’s six volumes of poetry spread out before their readers a variegated picture of his world, in a language which is at once clear and rich, whether he writes in Arabic or expresses himself in Hebrew. In addition to poetry, Masalha has also published articles, columns and translations in newspapers and journals in both Arabic and Hebrew as well as articles in other European languages.
The seventh edition of the Israeli pages features three of his poems in the Arabic original and two of his poems in the Hebrew original, as well as the English translations of these poems made by Vivian Eden, Anton Shammas and Gabriel Levin, with the poet. In addition, excerpts from five essays and reviews originally published in newspapers and journals in Israel and Lebanon by {id="3072" title="Marzouq Halabi"}, {id="3082" title="Omri Herzog"}, {id="3148" title="Hannan Hever"}, {id="3109" title="Sabah Zwein"} and {id="3121" title="Masalha himself"} are included on the site, as well as a {id="3078" title="short essay"} by the editor of these pages considering Masalha’s ‘On Artistic Freedom in the National Era.’
{id="3165" title="Dvora Amir"} was born in Jerusalem during the Independence War in 1948, to parents who had immigrated from Poland. She lives in the city of her birth, working at the Centre for Educational Technology where she writes educational programs on language and literature. Amir made her way to poetry at a relatively mature stage in her life, her first book appearing when she was 46, and she has published two volumes of poetry to this day. Her work, which reveals a rich inner world, while not avoiding events in the outer one, is slowly entering public consciousness and finding an attentive readership. The seventh edition of the Israeli pages features five of her poems in the Hebrew original and in translation by Linda Zisquit, Shirley Kaufman and Lisa Katz. Excerpts from three articles also appear – by poets {id="3123" title="Yitzhak Laor"} and {id="3077" title="Maya Bejerano"}, and critic {id="3154" title="Omri Herzog"} – analyzing various aspects of Amir’s work, as well as this editor’s {id="3095" title="appraisal"} of ‘How Many Windows Does a Person Need’.
In addition to the material on Amir and Masalha and their poetry, two evocative pieces of journalism, both originally published in July in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, appear on our site. The first, by Omer Barak, deals with the {id="3117" title="teaching of Arabic literature in Israeli schools"}, whether the language of instruction is Arabic or Hebrew. The second is an {id="3075" title="account by Shiri Lev-Ari"}of the joint Arabic-Hebrew writing workshop sponsored by Helicon, the Organization for the Advancement of Poetry in Israel; the remarks made at the workshop are especially suited to the combination of poetry by Dvora Amir and Salman Masalha found in these pages.
The two poems under discussion by the editor here both deal with freedom during times in which we are seemingly more liberated to live as well as we can, and as we see fit. Is this freedom genuine? Is it limited? What stands in its way – windows, borders, states, international terror? Or is it the helplessness of people to free themselves from their own personal chains, the demands of the environment, labels that society attaches to us, and the effects of our earliest education? Dvora Amir and Salman Masalha examine freedom and its limits from several points of view. Their concern with questions connected to the freedom to live, to create and to choose manifest the interest they both exhibit in the Other, and in the humane way both poets relate to people as people.
Enjoy! All prose translations on the Israeli domain are by PIW editor Lisa Katz, unless otherwise indicated.
The Israeli national site is produced by {id="3098" title="Mishkenot Sha'ananim"} International Cultural Centre in Jerusalem.
{id="3083" title="Rami Saari"}, National Editor
{id="3083" title="Lisa Katz"}, English Language Editor
Welcome to the seventh edition of the Israeli pages of PIW. The current offering focuses on two important contemporary Israeli poets, Dvora Amir and Salman Masalha, and its intention is to illuminate their work from as many different angles as possible. The combination of Amir and Masalha is not really so surprising: although Amir is an Israeli Jewish woman and Masalha is an Israeli Arab man, they have many things in common.
Both poets were born in Israel in the early years of the state, and both have lived for many years in Jerusalem, where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is perhaps most deeply felt; in their poetry, both treat difficult and unsolvable questions of identity, family, and language, junctures at which the inner world touches the outer in a country where daily life is filled with tensions both personal and political. The main difference between the two stems not from their experience of life but rather from points of origin: Amir is the daughter of Eastern European immigrants and Hebrew is her mother tongue, whereas Masalha’s parents were born in Greater Syria and his mother tongue is Arabic. Masalha published his first five books in Arabic, but he has been writing in Hebrew too for many years. His first book of poems in Hebrew was published this year, making headlines for its excellence.Masalha and Amir share other characteristics, so that their similarities are greater than their differences. First, their approach to the complex quarrel between the two peoples in whose midst they live is humanistic, striving to understand and accept the other. Even though as poets they cannot change political reality, their writing serves to record genuine feelings, rather than slogans, about the conditions under which they write.
Secondly, despite the quality, originality, rich use of language, and engaging topicality in their writing, both Amir and Masalha have not received the amount of attention they deserve. In Amir’s case this is due to the fact that she began to publish her poetry at a relatively later stage in life, with two books to date. In Masalha’s case, the great linguistic and national divide – which is also, without a doubt, a source of great cultural and spiritual richness – has created a situation in which he is better known to readers of Arabic poetry in Israel than to readers of Hebrew. In any case, PIW readers will easily perceive the great interest and potential in poetry by both Amir and Masalha. Presentation of their poetry together in one edition permits observers of contemporary Hebrew poetry to see two sides of the coin, two poets whose work should become better known outside the borders of their country.
{id="3177" title="Salman Masalha"}, poet and scholar, was born in 1953 in the Arab town of al-Maghar in northern Israel. In 1972 he moved to Jerusalem and has lived in the city ever since. Masalha’s six volumes of poetry spread out before their readers a variegated picture of his world, in a language which is at once clear and rich, whether he writes in Arabic or expresses himself in Hebrew. In addition to poetry, Masalha has also published articles, columns and translations in newspapers and journals in both Arabic and Hebrew as well as articles in other European languages.
The seventh edition of the Israeli pages features three of his poems in the Arabic original and two of his poems in the Hebrew original, as well as the English translations of these poems made by Vivian Eden, Anton Shammas and Gabriel Levin, with the poet. In addition, excerpts from five essays and reviews originally published in newspapers and journals in Israel and Lebanon by {id="3072" title="Marzouq Halabi"}, {id="3082" title="Omri Herzog"}, {id="3148" title="Hannan Hever"}, {id="3109" title="Sabah Zwein"} and {id="3121" title="Masalha himself"} are included on the site, as well as a {id="3078" title="short essay"} by the editor of these pages considering Masalha’s ‘On Artistic Freedom in the National Era.’
{id="3165" title="Dvora Amir"} was born in Jerusalem during the Independence War in 1948, to parents who had immigrated from Poland. She lives in the city of her birth, working at the Centre for Educational Technology where she writes educational programs on language and literature. Amir made her way to poetry at a relatively mature stage in her life, her first book appearing when she was 46, and she has published two volumes of poetry to this day. Her work, which reveals a rich inner world, while not avoiding events in the outer one, is slowly entering public consciousness and finding an attentive readership. The seventh edition of the Israeli pages features five of her poems in the Hebrew original and in translation by Linda Zisquit, Shirley Kaufman and Lisa Katz. Excerpts from three articles also appear – by poets {id="3123" title="Yitzhak Laor"} and {id="3077" title="Maya Bejerano"}, and critic {id="3154" title="Omri Herzog"} – analyzing various aspects of Amir’s work, as well as this editor’s {id="3095" title="appraisal"} of ‘How Many Windows Does a Person Need’.
In addition to the material on Amir and Masalha and their poetry, two evocative pieces of journalism, both originally published in July in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, appear on our site. The first, by Omer Barak, deals with the {id="3117" title="teaching of Arabic literature in Israeli schools"}, whether the language of instruction is Arabic or Hebrew. The second is an {id="3075" title="account by Shiri Lev-Ari"}of the joint Arabic-Hebrew writing workshop sponsored by Helicon, the Organization for the Advancement of Poetry in Israel; the remarks made at the workshop are especially suited to the combination of poetry by Dvora Amir and Salman Masalha found in these pages.
The two poems under discussion by the editor here both deal with freedom during times in which we are seemingly more liberated to live as well as we can, and as we see fit. Is this freedom genuine? Is it limited? What stands in its way – windows, borders, states, international terror? Or is it the helplessness of people to free themselves from their own personal chains, the demands of the environment, labels that society attaches to us, and the effects of our earliest education? Dvora Amir and Salman Masalha examine freedom and its limits from several points of view. Their concern with questions connected to the freedom to live, to create and to choose manifest the interest they both exhibit in the Other, and in the humane way both poets relate to people as people.
Enjoy! All prose translations on the Israeli domain are by PIW editor Lisa Katz, unless otherwise indicated.
The Israeli national site is produced by {id="3098" title="Mishkenot Sha'ananim"} International Cultural Centre in Jerusalem.
{id="3083" title="Rami Saari"}, National Editor
{id="3083" title="Lisa Katz"}, English Language Editor
© Rami Saari
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