Welcome to Israeli poetry - October 2005

14 april 2006 The third year of PIW-Israel closes with the presentation of two contemporary poets who both began publishing in the middle of the 1990s. In previous introductions to the site, lines of similarity and difference joining or separating poets have been drawn. In this case, only a decade separates the births of Liat Kaplan (1956) and Sharron Hass (1966), and they are close in other ways as well. Both are native Israelis, both write in Hebrew, both are secular humanists in their world outlook; they were both involved with the Helicon Society for the Advancement of Poetry, and both have an interest in the relations between the sexes and in women’s spaces, in the differences between reality and dreams, and in the connection between the ability of language to make statements to the human basis underlying language. Kaplan and Hass both aspire to achieve directness and honesty in their writing, and for both of them this attempt is conducted by studying the world, by watching what goes on outside, and also by entering into the depths of the soul, the farthest reaches of memory, the deepest places of consciousness which permit penetration.

The major differences between Kaplan and Hass are located neither in their use of language nor in their themes, but rather in their sources; in the influences that weigh upon them; and in the dialogue each conducts with the literature each chooses to read, with the environment and with herself. Kaplan was, paradoxically, exposed only to Hebrew poetry in her childhood on a kibbutz, and as she grew up, and she herself says she did not become well acquainted with foreign literature until recently. ‘Paradoxically’ perhaps because the interest she exhibits in poetry written in other places and languages continues to increase over the years.

Hass, in contrast, is attracted, paradoxically, to classic Greek culture and its poetry on the one hand, and to American poetry on the other. Only later in her development, Hass says in her interview with PIW, did the cultural riches of Hebrew literature begin to touch her deeply. Kaplan, disturbed by social and political issues, feels a strong need to express her position on them in her poetry, a need which stems from her view that one can’t separate the injustices of daily life from the world of writing. Hass too does not shrink from the everyday world and from human suffering, but says that she does not believe political poetry lasts unless its language is worked precisely and undergoes a suitable literary transformation.

In previous issues we included critical articles analyzing poets’ lives and work. As the current poets are young contemporaries in the middle of their careers, we preferred to accompany their work with personal interviews, windows on their inner worlds. In this way readers may become personally and more deeply familiar with these writers, the way they look at literature from their particular frameworks, and their work methods. In addition, as in past issues, one poem by each writer is the subject of an analysis by this editor. Enjoyable reading until we return in our fourth year! All prose translations on the Israeli domain are by PIW editor Lisa Katz, unless otherwise indicated.


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


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