Poets on the Edge
Description
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.
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.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
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 Divorcé 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 Café Arithmetic Time-Saturated Love Song Room Number forty Nuns *(First line: Yesterday, when I sat in the café) 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
