Poets on the Edge
An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry
State University of New York Press
Published on 11. September 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
376 pages
978-0-7914-7686-4 (ISBN)
Description
Selections from twenty-seven Hebrew poets, many of whose poems appear here in English for the first time.
Poets on the Edge introduces four decades of Israel's most vigorous poetic voices. Selected and translated by author Tsipi Keller, the collection showcases a generous sampling of work from twenty-seven established and emerging poets, bringing many to readers of English for the first time. Thematically and stylistically innovative, the poems chart the evolution of new currents in Hebrew poetry that emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s and, in breaking from traditional structures of line, rhyme, and meter, have become as liberated as any contemporary American verse. Writing on politics, sexual identity, skepticism, intellectualism, community, country, love, fear, and death, these poets are daring, original, and direct, and their poems are matched by the freshness and precision of Keller's translations.
Poets on the Edge introduces four decades of Israel's most vigorous poetic voices. Selected and translated by author Tsipi Keller, the collection showcases a generous sampling of work from twenty-seven established and emerging poets, bringing many to readers of English for the first time. Thematically and stylistically innovative, the poems chart the evolution of new currents in Hebrew poetry that emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s and, in breaking from traditional structures of line, rhyme, and meter, have become as liberated as any contemporary American verse. Writing on politics, sexual identity, skepticism, intellectualism, community, country, love, fear, and death, these poets are daring, original, and direct, and their poems are matched by the freshness and precision of Keller's translations.
Reviews / Votes
"For English-speaking readers (and writers), both Jewish and non-Jewish, the book will explode whatever lingering stereotypes there may be about Israeli culture. More broadly, it will confirm Israel's place in world literature today as a cornucopia of poetry. You won't want to miss out on Poets on the Edge." - phati'tude Literary Magazine"Tsipi Keller ... put together the perfect combination of twenty-seven established and emerging Hebrew poets bringing many to readers of English for the first time ... In the end, it's the writing that shines through. The poets touch on politics, sexual identity, skepticism, intellectualism, community, country, love, fear, and death, with much of the work daring, original and direct; and are matched by the freshness and precision of Keller's translations." - phati'tude Literary Magazine
"...an introduction for an English-speaking audience to the wealth of contemporary poets writing in Israel today ... The careful translations are sensitive to both Hebrew cadence and English idiom. Covering a wide range of themes including love, politics, doubt, death, identity, and even poetry itself, these poems are a carefully curated collection." - Jewish Book World
"This poetry from Israel reveals a culture far more diverse than American stereotypes would suggest ... [The poets] share ... a precision of language and feeling that should seem both familiar and fresh to non-Israeli readers of poetry." - HeadButler.com
"This new anthology of Hebrew poetry in translation has two special strengths-tremendous depth and a personal touch ... It's clear that [Keller] has strong feelings on which poets matter, and wants to explain why they matter." - Jerusalem Post
"Poets on the Edge deserves to be in every poetry lover's library, and should be on every Jewish bookshelf. Not since Carmi's 1981 The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse has a volume of such significance been published." - The Jewish Daily Forward
"...a feast of a book ... brilliantly translated by a gifted poet. For American readers, who are likely to know much more about Israeli fiction than its poetry, ... Poets on the Edge will be a revelation." - Alicia Suskin Ostriker, JBooks.com
"This commendable project casts a wide net, demonstrating the impressive range of urgencies and preoccupations in the contemporary literary landscape of Israel." - Critical Mass, the blog of the national book critics circle board of directors
"This comprehensive and amazing anthology is a great read best taken slowly, savoring each page of outstanding poetry. Tsipi Keller has had the patience and intelligence to select a stimulating and powerful group of poems, with accurate and very readable translations." - Shirley Kaufman
"Poets on the Edge is a true masterpiece. The translations are sensitive, wise, graceful, and insightful; the selection is rich and inviting. What a brilliant achievement!" - Miriyam Glazer, American Jewish University
"Keller's breathtaking anthology, some twenty years in the making, shows that voices of contemporary Israeli poetry can be compellingly narrative, elegantly lyrical, elegiac, passionate, eccentric, and even phantasmagoric. Her translations convey the skepticism, wit, and energy of these poets who speak of loves and breakups, query their places in Jewish history, contemplate metaphysical questions, and paint pictures of everyday life in Israel." - Lynn Levin, Drexel University and The University of Pennsylvania
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-7686-4 (9780791476864)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Poets on the Edge
An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry
E-Book
02/2012
State University of New York Press
€24.49
Available for download
Persons
Tsipi Keller was born in Prague, raised in Israel, and has been living in the United States since 1974. Her short fiction and her poetry translations have appeared in many journals and anthologies, and her novels include Jackpot; Retelling; and The Prophet of Tenth Street. Keller has also translated several poetry collections, including Dan Pagis's Last Poems and Irit Katzir's And I Wrote Poems. She lives in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Content
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Aminadav Dykman
YEHUDA AMICHAI (from Open Shut Open, 1998)
I Was Not One of the Six Million. And What is the Span of My Life?
Open Shut Open
The Precision of Pain and the Blurring of Bliss
A Touch of Yearning in Everything (third section)
My Parents' Motel
The Jewish Time Bomb
T. CARMI (from Monologues and Other Poems, 1988; Truth & Consequence, 1993)
And Until When?
If It So Pleases
Nightwatch
A Time for Everything
Monologue of the Deserted (II)
In Memory of Dan Pagis (1930-1986)
Monologue in the Twilight of His Life
Lonely Woman's Monologue
Chess at the Seashore
An Explosion in Jerusalem
Mortification of the Soul
The Mouth
From the Diary of a Divorce
DAN PAGIS (from Late Leisure, 1964; Transformation, 1970; Synonyms, 1982; Last Poems, 1987)
Tempt the Devil
Ein Leben
Wall Calendar
The End of Winter
Memorial Night
*(First line: You arrive slightly late)
A Linguistic Problem
Diagnosis
Anecdote
Testimony
Browsing through the Album
Houses
NATAN ZACH (from Hard to Remember, 1984; Since I'm in the Neighborhood, 1996)
A Belated Poem
To Rise from Ashes
Self-portrait at Night
Meantime
As Agreed
Three Poems That Weren't Written
Widow
Hayuta
Comrade Poet
A Small Error in the Machine
Goodbye Berlin
Confession: Gentle
And Then We Had
SHIN SHIFRA (from Woman's Song, 1962; The Next Step, 1968; Poems 1973-1985 (1987); A Woman Who Practices How To Live, Poems 1986-1999 (2001)
That Made Me Woman
The Spider of Sin
On Rain
Conceit
Lie
Father
A Stranger
In This Split Second
Sabbath Prayer
Summer
This Evening
Ecclesiastes
Goat
Moonstruck
Dove
Vegetarian
Shame
A Woman Who Practices How to Live
ISRAEL HAR (from Edge of Darkness and Bread, 1994)
Morning in a Foreign Place
Grave in the Sun
A Cradle Story
A Sour Pickle the Angel of Death
Dust Instead of Glory
Australian Story
Pauper's Talk
And Tomorrow I Too to Die Like This
DAVID AVIDAN (from Something for Somebody-Selected Poems 1952-1964)
The Stain Remained on the Wall
Housing
Incident
Interim Summation
Power of Attorney
Personal Problems
Dance Music
Will Power
Safe Distance
Last-Last
Experiments in Hysterics
DAHLIA RAVIKOVITCH (from Mother With Child, 1992)
An Exceptional Autumn
An Attempt to Express an Opinion
On Life and on Death
Omens
The Cat
Ready Alert
Lying Upon the Water
But She Had a Son
Grand Days Have Gone By Her
A Mother Goes About
The Tale about the Arab Who Died in the Fire
Lullaby
Train of Thought
Rina Slavin
The Greenness of Leaves
A Private History
A Beetle's Life
ASHER REICH (from Selected Poems, 1986; Works on Paper, 1988; Fictitious Facts, 1993; Winter Music, 1996)
The History of My Heart
Fragments
New York: First Swim
New York: Second Swim
Requiem to a Dog in the Rain
Sights
Mud
Nights
Mornings
The Music of the Cosmos
A Recurring Memory
Fence
Photograph
A Different Sensation
Odors
HEDVA HARECHAVI (from I Only Want To Tell You, 1985)
Tonight I Saw
When She Goes Out Alone
Imagine, Carving the Sky
When the Music Subsided
Like Back Then, When I Was Escorted
Like in the Passing Year
Like a Binging Preying Beast
A Very Cheerful Girl
Go, Go Wherever You Go, But Go
Already Night, Already Day
For Ruth
Here Everything
NURIT ZARHI (from The Fish, 1987; Village of Spirits, 1994; Hypnodrom Hotel, 1998)
*(First line: For they are at the center of my life)
*(First line: The rain reveals the hidden names of leaves)
*(First line: Forgive my outburst, Sir)
Baby Blues
The Marked Ship
Convincing Herself She's a Picture
Nights
Lightly
Stone
MEIR WIESELTIER (from Exit to the Sea, 1981; The Concise Sixties, 1984; Warehouse, 1995)
A Naive Painting
To Be Continued
Condolences
A Moving Electric Message
Only in Hebrew
My Wisdom
Cheese
The Bible in Pictures II
Burning Holy Books
The 19th Century: Nohant, June '76
The Lost Uncles
The Fowl of the Air
The Flower of Anarchy
Not A Poem
A Childish Farewell Song to a Prime Minister
The Wheel of the Century
RUTH BLUMERT (from Exiles on a Strange Planet, 1991; Acquaintance from Another Age, 1996)
Antiques
The Combination
In Time
Entropy
Chances
Breaks
The Departure from the Garden of Eden
Jerusalem, Bus #18, 1986
Waves of Love
Silent Film
Letter
Additional Dimensions
Metamorphosis
Morning
Lost in the Alleys of the Flat
*(First line: Most of the time I doze)
YONA WALLACH (from Appearance, 1985)
All the Trees
House Said the House
Come to Me Like a Capitalist
Tuvia
Sleep With Me Like a Journalist
Come to Me Like a Jew
Let's Make a Little Philosophy
All at Once Everything Seems Dear
Woman Becomes Tree
When You Come Lie With Me Come Like My Father
RAQUEL CHALFI (from Free Fall, 1979; Matter, 1990; Love of the Dragon, 1995)
Travelling to Jerusalem On a Moon Night
Hair of Night
The Water Queen of Jerusalem
Reckless Love
I Drew My End Near
Sitting in the Wall
Monologue of the Witch Impregnated by the Devil
And the Whiteness Grew Stark
Elegy For a Friend Who Lost Her Mind
A Concealed Passenger
Blues in a Jar
German Boot
MORDECHAI GELDMAN (from Eye, 1993; The Book of Asking, 1997)
Friendly Dragon
Porno 2
Porno 3
The Hottentot Venus (Porno 7)
Holy Ground
Dolinger
Tonight I Yield
I Won't Travel This Summer
Abused Neighbor
Yes
Why a Frog
Almost Flowers
RUTH RAMOT (from Slices of Heaven, 1994; Sealed Waves, 1998)
Blue Prince
*(First line: I leave, taking with me)
They Assault Me the Flowers
*(First line: Quiet and an evening breeze)
In the Soft Curve
The Scent of Wind
Painting
*(First line: The moon doesn't fit here)
Toward Evening
Hot in the Corner Cafe
Arithmetic
Time-Saturated
Love Song
Room Number forty
Nuns
*(First line: Yesterday, when I sat in the cafe)
AGI MISHOL (from Fax Pigeon, 1991; The Interior Plain, 1995; Look There, 1999; New and Collected Poems, 2003)
So Overbearing Had Become
*(First line: I remember a short speech)
It Seems Miraculous to Her
Turning to Rest in Sappho's Poems
Afternoon Nap
The Interior Plain
Revelation
Like a Bird Tagged
In Her Bed
The Sacred Cow of H
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Aminadav Dykman
YEHUDA AMICHAI (from Open Shut Open, 1998)
I Was Not One of the Six Million. And What is the Span of My Life?
Open Shut Open
The Precision of Pain and the Blurring of Bliss
A Touch of Yearning in Everything (third section)
My Parents' Motel
The Jewish Time Bomb
T. CARMI (from Monologues and Other Poems, 1988; Truth & Consequence, 1993)
And Until When?
If It So Pleases
Nightwatch
A Time for Everything
Monologue of the Deserted (II)
In Memory of Dan Pagis (1930-1986)
Monologue in the Twilight of His Life
Lonely Woman's Monologue
Chess at the Seashore
An Explosion in Jerusalem
Mortification of the Soul
The Mouth
From the Diary of a Divorce
DAN PAGIS (from Late Leisure, 1964; Transformation, 1970; Synonyms, 1982; Last Poems, 1987)
Tempt the Devil
Ein Leben
Wall Calendar
The End of Winter
Memorial Night
*(First line: You arrive slightly late)
A Linguistic Problem
Diagnosis
Anecdote
Testimony
Browsing through the Album
Houses
NATAN ZACH (from Hard to Remember, 1984; Since I'm in the Neighborhood, 1996)
A Belated Poem
To Rise from Ashes
Self-portrait at Night
Meantime
As Agreed
Three Poems That Weren't Written
Widow
Hayuta
Comrade Poet
A Small Error in the Machine
Goodbye Berlin
Confession: Gentle
And Then We Had
SHIN SHIFRA (from Woman's Song, 1962; The Next Step, 1968; Poems 1973-1985 (1987); A Woman Who Practices How To Live, Poems 1986-1999 (2001)
That Made Me Woman
The Spider of Sin
On Rain
Conceit
Lie
Father
A Stranger
In This Split Second
Sabbath Prayer
Summer
This Evening
Ecclesiastes
Goat
Moonstruck
Dove
Vegetarian
Shame
A Woman Who Practices How to Live
ISRAEL HAR (from Edge of Darkness and Bread, 1994)
Morning in a Foreign Place
Grave in the Sun
A Cradle Story
A Sour Pickle the Angel of Death
Dust Instead of Glory
Australian Story
Pauper's Talk
And Tomorrow I Too to Die Like This
DAVID AVIDAN (from Something for Somebody-Selected Poems 1952-1964)
The Stain Remained on the Wall
Housing
Incident
Interim Summation
Power of Attorney
Personal Problems
Dance Music
Will Power
Safe Distance
Last-Last
Experiments in Hysterics
DAHLIA RAVIKOVITCH (from Mother With Child, 1992)
An Exceptional Autumn
An Attempt to Express an Opinion
On Life and on Death
Omens
The Cat
Ready Alert
Lying Upon the Water
But She Had a Son
Grand Days Have Gone By Her
A Mother Goes About
The Tale about the Arab Who Died in the Fire
Lullaby
Train of Thought
Rina Slavin
The Greenness of Leaves
A Private History
A Beetle's Life
ASHER REICH (from Selected Poems, 1986; Works on Paper, 1988; Fictitious Facts, 1993; Winter Music, 1996)
The History of My Heart
Fragments
New York: First Swim
New York: Second Swim
Requiem to a Dog in the Rain
Sights
Mud
Nights
Mornings
The Music of the Cosmos
A Recurring Memory
Fence
Photograph
A Different Sensation
Odors
HEDVA HARECHAVI (from I Only Want To Tell You, 1985)
Tonight I Saw
When She Goes Out Alone
Imagine, Carving the Sky
When the Music Subsided
Like Back Then, When I Was Escorted
Like in the Passing Year
Like a Binging Preying Beast
A Very Cheerful Girl
Go, Go Wherever You Go, But Go
Already Night, Already Day
For Ruth
Here Everything
NURIT ZARHI (from The Fish, 1987; Village of Spirits, 1994; Hypnodrom Hotel, 1998)
*(First line: For they are at the center of my life)
*(First line: The rain reveals the hidden names of leaves)
*(First line: Forgive my outburst, Sir)
Baby Blues
The Marked Ship
Convincing Herself She's a Picture
Nights
Lightly
Stone
MEIR WIESELTIER (from Exit to the Sea, 1981; The Concise Sixties, 1984; Warehouse, 1995)
A Naive Painting
To Be Continued
Condolences
A Moving Electric Message
Only in Hebrew
My Wisdom
Cheese
The Bible in Pictures II
Burning Holy Books
The 19th Century: Nohant, June '76
The Lost Uncles
The Fowl of the Air
The Flower of Anarchy
Not A Poem
A Childish Farewell Song to a Prime Minister
The Wheel of the Century
RUTH BLUMERT (from Exiles on a Strange Planet, 1991; Acquaintance from Another Age, 1996)
Antiques
The Combination
In Time
Entropy
Chances
Breaks
The Departure from the Garden of Eden
Jerusalem, Bus #18, 1986
Waves of Love
Silent Film
Letter
Additional Dimensions
Metamorphosis
Morning
Lost in the Alleys of the Flat
*(First line: Most of the time I doze)
YONA WALLACH (from Appearance, 1985)
All the Trees
House Said the House
Come to Me Like a Capitalist
Tuvia
Sleep With Me Like a Journalist
Come to Me Like a Jew
Let's Make a Little Philosophy
All at Once Everything Seems Dear
Woman Becomes Tree
When You Come Lie With Me Come Like My Father
RAQUEL CHALFI (from Free Fall, 1979; Matter, 1990; Love of the Dragon, 1995)
Travelling to Jerusalem On a Moon Night
Hair of Night
The Water Queen of Jerusalem
Reckless Love
I Drew My End Near
Sitting in the Wall
Monologue of the Witch Impregnated by the Devil
And the Whiteness Grew Stark
Elegy For a Friend Who Lost Her Mind
A Concealed Passenger
Blues in a Jar
German Boot
MORDECHAI GELDMAN (from Eye, 1993; The Book of Asking, 1997)
Friendly Dragon
Porno 2
Porno 3
The Hottentot Venus (Porno 7)
Holy Ground
Dolinger
Tonight I Yield
I Won't Travel This Summer
Abused Neighbor
Yes
Why a Frog
Almost Flowers
RUTH RAMOT (from Slices of Heaven, 1994; Sealed Waves, 1998)
Blue Prince
*(First line: I leave, taking with me)
They Assault Me the Flowers
*(First line: Quiet and an evening breeze)
In the Soft Curve
The Scent of Wind
Painting
*(First line: The moon doesn't fit here)
Toward Evening
Hot in the Corner Cafe
Arithmetic
Time-Saturated
Love Song
Room Number forty
Nuns
*(First line: Yesterday, when I sat in the cafe)
AGI MISHOL (from Fax Pigeon, 1991; The Interior Plain, 1995; Look There, 1999; New and Collected Poems, 2003)
So Overbearing Had Become
*(First line: I remember a short speech)
It Seems Miraculous to Her
Turning to Rest in Sappho's Poems
Afternoon Nap
The Interior Plain
Revelation
Like a Bird Tagged
In Her Bed
The Sacred Cow of H