Israel in Translation

This week is the last week of Ramadan, which began on April 23rd and will ends Saturday, May 23.

To acknowledge those who are fasting in isolation and heat, this episode features Mahmoud Darwish’s aptly titled collection,In the Presence of Absence, translated by Sinan Antoon.

Text:

Mahmoud DarwishIn the Presence of Absence. Translated by Sinan Antoon. Archipelago Books, 2012.

Marcela reads from Karen Alkalay-Gut’s A Word in Edgewise: Ladies From the Bible Tell Their Tales, published by Simple Conundrum Press.

The bible devotes quite a bit of space to the minds of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — we know how they feel, what makes them angry or happy; we hear about
their arguments with God. Through her poetry, Alkaly-Gut gives the matriarchs a voice.

Karen Alkalay-Gut, was born in London and is professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University. In addition to collections of poetry and literary scholarship, she writes lyrics for a rock group, Panic Ensemble, and her “Tel Aviv Diary” appears daily on http://www.karenalkalay-gut.com/diary

Text:

Karen Alkalay-Gut A Word in Edgewise: Ladies From the Bible Tell Their Tales

On this episode, Marcela reads from Sayed Kashua’s fourth, and latest novel,Track Changes. The novel was published in December by Grove Press.

Kashua’s protagonist is a nameless “I” who shares considerable biographical overlaps with the author. This suggests, perhaps even implies, the so-called truth of Kashua’s first-person fiction. Yet his character, whose job is to transcribe others’ memories onto the page, repeatedly reveals his elisions from and additions to strangers’ memoirs-for-hire, often inserting his own memories as their own, thereby erasing his life in scattered pieces. The narrator’s confessions are hardly reliable, making every level of his storytelling suspect, which Kashua further visually underscores by “track changes”-style crossed-out text.

On this episode, Marcela reads from Sayed Kashua’s fourth, and latest novel, Track Changes. The novel was published in December by Grove Press.

Kashua’s protagonist is a nameless “I” who shares considerable biographical overlaps with the author. This suggests, perhaps even implies, the so-called truth of Kashua’s first-person fiction. Yet his character, whose job is to transcribe others’ memories onto the page, repeatedly reveals his elisions from and additions to strangers’ memoirs-for-hire, often inserting his own memories as their own, thereby erasing his life in scattered pieces. The narrator’s confessions are hardly reliable, making every level of his storytelling suspect, which Kashua further visually underscores by “track changes”-style crossed-out text.

Text:

Sayed Kashua, Track Changes. Translated by Mitch Ginsburg. Grove Press, 2019.

Previous Podcasts:

https://tlv1.fm/arts-culture/2016/04/20/sayed-kashuas-farewell/

https://tlv1.fm/arts-culture/2014/11/26/sayed-kashua-an-examination-of-arab-israeli-identity-israel-in-translation/

Marcela reads from Anat Zecharia’s poem, “One, Two, Three,” which recently appeared in an issue of The Ilanot Review, in collaboration with Granta Hebrew.

The poem’s title and subtitle refer to Uzi Hitman’s children song about three dwarfs who sit chatting behind a mountain. Anat is known as an outspoken poet who writes forthrightly about women's desires.

Her work has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for writers. She has published three collections of poetry — As Soon as Beautiful (2008), Due to Human Error (2012), and Palestina I (2016). Her new book, “Ever After,” won an ACUM literary award for 2019.

Text:

Anat Zecharia “One, Two, Three.” Translated by Lisa Katz and Maayan Eitan. The Ilanot Review

Music:

עוזי חיטמן - מאחורי ההר

Marcela highlights poetry from the latest issue of The Ilanot Review which, in collaboration with Granta Hebrew, published English translations of up and coming poets and writers, most of whom are featured for the very first time.

Text:

“And I Begin to Confess” by Salih Habib, translated by Christine Khoury Bishara. The Ilanot Review

“The Children I Will Never Have” by Liat Rosenblatt, translated by Jane Medved. The Ilanot Review

“Rivka Speaks” by Ori Ferster, translated by Marcela Sulak. The Ilanot Review

“I am the one who’s free” by Dareen Tatour, translated by Christine Khoury Bishara. The Ilanot Review

“Biotope” by Shira Stav, translated by Adriana X Jacobs. The Ilanot Review

This week Marcela reads from Nava Semel’s novel, Isra Ilse, an alternative history of the JewishPeople in which there was no state of Israel, and no holocaust.

The novel is divided into three parts. Part 1, a detective story, opens in September 2001 when LiamEmanuel, an Israeli descendant of Noah, learns about and inherits Grand Island, which is downriver fromNiagara Falls. He leaves Israel intending to reclaim this “Promised Land” in America. Shortly after he arrives inAmerica Liam disappears. Simon T. Lenox, a Native American police investigator, tries to recover Israel’s“missing son.”

Text:

Nava Semel, Isra Ilse. Translated by Jessica Cohen. Mandel Vilar Press (October17, 2016)

This week Marcela returns to focus on up and coming Israeli writers who have rarely or never before been translated into English, by featuring Ayala Ben Lulu. This story appears in the latest issue of The Ilanot Review, which was a collaboration with Granta Hebrew.

Ayala Ben Luluis an Israeli poet, winner of the Teva prize for poetry. She holds a B.A. in psychology and an M.Sc. in history and philosophy of science and ideas.

Text:

Mona Lisa by Ayala Ben Lulu. Translated by Karen Marron. The Ilanot Review

This podcast is dedicated to marriage—all the engaged couples with cold feet, newly married couples, whose memories of the ceremony are still fresh, long-married couples who survived the wedding day.

We’ll be reading from and discussing the last book Ronit Matalon wrote before her death in 2017. It is called And the Bride Closed the Door, and it was awarded Israel’s prestigious Brenner Prize the day before her death.

Previous Podcasts:

Bliss

The One Facing Us

The Sound of her Steps

Text:

And the Bride Closed the Door, by Ronit Matalon. Translated by Jessica Cohen. New Vessels Press, 2019.

The novel, The First Mrs. Rothschild, by Sara Aharoni, tells the story of the wife of Meir Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the banking dynasty, and is written in the form of a personal journal.

Sara Aharoni was born in Israel in 1953. She worked as a teacher, educator and school principal for twenty years. Together with her husband, Meir Aharoni, Sara wrote, edited and published a series of books about Israel, as well as six children’s books. She is the author of the bestselling Saltanat's Love, based on her mother’s life story and the novelPersian Silence.

Text:

The First Mrs. Rothschild, a novel by Sara Aharoni. Translated by Yardenne Greenspan. Amazon Crossing, July 2019.