Article
An Introduction to the Festival Poets, August 2006
July 06, 2006
Ramy Ditzanny treats physical defects and handicaps with black humor, shining his spotlight on love and sex on the edge, between the worlds of the living and the dead.
Tamir Greenberg’s ‘Heroin’ poems provide poetic witness to a deep emotional tie, the troubled relationship between the poet and his drug addicted lover.
Hedva Harechavi delicately depicts some illuminating cracks in a tormented soul. Her poems reflect how fragile and yet rough life is.
Two poems from 'The Scent of Darkness' by Yonadav Kaploun draw the reader into a singular world where a longing for God and physical desire become enmeshed.
My own poems offer a few virtual cats and one real dog – inhabitants of Noah’s Ark who touched the heart of the editor of these pages.
When this edition was in its final preparatory stages I received news of two additional festival participants: the Palestinian poet Basem al-Nabris, and the Arab-Israeli Nawal Naffaa’. As Nawal Naffaa’s poetry was not available in English translation while we worked on these pages, two of her poems in the original Arabic and in English translation will appear in the next edition, scheduled for the final day of the poetry festival in Jerusalem, along with work by Ayman Agbariya and Dorit Weisman.
An interview with three of Mishkenot Sha'ananim International Poetry festival participants, Tamir Greenberg, Hedva Harechavi and Lyor Shternberg, conducted by the editor of these pages during Israel’s National Poetry Festival in Metulla during the first week in June (and held every year since 1997 on the Shavuot holidays) appears in this issue. The responses of these poets, who were also invited guests of the national festival, provide a broader picture of each and of their connection to their readers, to festivals, and to the world at large. This edition also includes biographical information about the festival participants whose work appears in this issue, for the most part provided by the poets themselves.
Enjoy! All prose translations on the Israeli domain are by PIW editor Lisa Katz, unless otherwise indicated.
Rami Saari, National Editor
Lisa Katz, English Language Editor
The Israeli national site is produced by Mishkenot Sha'ananim International Cultural Centre in Jerusalem.
In the same streamlined “poetry festival” mode as our previous edition, here is the work of five more Israeli poets who will participate in next fall’s International Festival of Poetry organized by Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem.
The Israeli festival poets joining Dana Amir, Israel Eliraz, Raquel Chalfi, Tamir Lahav-Radlmesser and Lyor Shternberg, whose work appeared in our previous edition, are represented in these pages by two poems each, which naturally reveal only a few aspects of their rich inner worlds: Ramy Ditzanny treats physical defects and handicaps with black humor, shining his spotlight on love and sex on the edge, between the worlds of the living and the dead.
Tamir Greenberg’s ‘Heroin’ poems provide poetic witness to a deep emotional tie, the troubled relationship between the poet and his drug addicted lover.
Hedva Harechavi delicately depicts some illuminating cracks in a tormented soul. Her poems reflect how fragile and yet rough life is.
Two poems from 'The Scent of Darkness' by Yonadav Kaploun draw the reader into a singular world where a longing for God and physical desire become enmeshed.
My own poems offer a few virtual cats and one real dog – inhabitants of Noah’s Ark who touched the heart of the editor of these pages.
When this edition was in its final preparatory stages I received news of two additional festival participants: the Palestinian poet Basem al-Nabris, and the Arab-Israeli Nawal Naffaa’. As Nawal Naffaa’s poetry was not available in English translation while we worked on these pages, two of her poems in the original Arabic and in English translation will appear in the next edition, scheduled for the final day of the poetry festival in Jerusalem, along with work by Ayman Agbariya and Dorit Weisman.
An interview with three of Mishkenot Sha'ananim International Poetry festival participants, Tamir Greenberg, Hedva Harechavi and Lyor Shternberg, conducted by the editor of these pages during Israel’s National Poetry Festival in Metulla during the first week in June (and held every year since 1997 on the Shavuot holidays) appears in this issue. The responses of these poets, who were also invited guests of the national festival, provide a broader picture of each and of their connection to their readers, to festivals, and to the world at large. This edition also includes biographical information about the festival participants whose work appears in this issue, for the most part provided by the poets themselves.
Enjoy! All prose translations on the Israeli domain are by PIW editor Lisa Katz, unless otherwise indicated.
Rami Saari, National Editor
Lisa Katz, English Language Editor
The Israeli national site is produced by Mishkenot Sha'ananim International Cultural Centre in Jerusalem.
© Rami Saari
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