Welcome to Israeli poetry - February 2004

January 18, 2006 The beginning of Hebrew poetry is recorded in the Bible, whose very first book refers to the primordial Garden of Eden. This is the place where humankind was born: the cradle of human culture. The first verses treated as poetry by the biblical writer are these:

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
You wives of Lamech, hearken to what I say:
I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.
(Genesis 4:23-24)

Hebrew poetry has come a long way since then, built block by block, the two verses above joined by the poetry of Moses; and of Deborah; David's lament for Jonathan; and the psalms, hymns and chapters of the Prophets, sounding a call for social justice. After biblical poetry came the writings of the rabbinical sages; the poetry of the Middle Ages; of the Enlightenment; the beginning of modern Hebrew poetry; and the work of contemporary Israeli writers.

The poets featured in the fifth edition represent different directions in Hebrew poetry even if they do share some similarities: they were both born in the early 1940s; each became fatherless at an early age, each father a casualty of a different war; both began to publish their poetry in the 1960s; both were part of the Tel Aviv Poets movement; and both broke new ground in Hebrew poetry. A friendship was woven between Wallach and Wieseltier, and between them and a third poet, Yair Hurwitz; some Israeli literary critics dubbed this trio "The Sixties Generation". Their most prominent characteristics were the challenge they made to a society still in thrall to nationalist mythology, and their ability to turn the spotlight away from the national and the collective and aim it at the private and personal; as well, they made much use of irony, humor, sarcasm and even verbal violence. They exhibited virtuosity in their command of Hebrew, while, at the same time, the desire and the ability to shatter the language in order to focus attention on its special effects or to replace it entirely with a new poetic language.

The two poets are represented in great depth and detail in this issue, including five poems each. In addition to three translations of Wallach’s work by Linda Zisquit and two by Lisa Katz, Wallach’s image, eccentric and fascinating, is presented to PIW readers through excerpts from essays by the Israeli poet-critics {id="3111" title="Aharon Shabtai"} and {id="3074" title="Lilach Lachman"}, and in {id="3110" title="an excerpt from Zisquit’s introduction to Wild Light"}, her volume of translations of Wallach’s poetry, first published by Sheep Meadow Press in 1997, and soon to be reissued in an expanded version.

Accompanying Wieseltier’s poems, four in Shirley Kaufman’s translation from her new selection of his work in English, The Flower of Anarchy (University of California Press, 2003), and one translated by Lisa Katz, are {id="3146" title="Kaufman’s preface to the book"}, and two short essays: Israeli critic {id="3132" title="Menachem Benn’s reading of ‘Exit to the Sea’"}, from his Poetry Portfolio (Yaron Golan Press, 1994), and {id="3131" title="remarks by the editor"} of these Israeli pages on the connection between ‘The Journey of the Great Egyptian Obelisk to the West’ and the political and cultural situation today. Enjoy! The Israeli national site is produced by {id="3098" title="Mishkenot Sha'ananim"} International Cultural Centre in Jerusalem.

{id="3083" title="Gabi Hadar"}, National Site Producer
{id="3083" title="Rami Saari"}, National Editor
{id="3083" title="Lisa Katz"}, English Language Editor