The spectacular difference : selected poems / [Hebrew characters] Zelda ; translated with an introduction by Marcia Falk.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zeldah, 1914-1984.

Contributor:

Falk, Marcia.

Standardized Title:

Poems. English. Selections

Language:

English

Hebrew

Subjects (All):

Zeldah, 1914-1984--Translations into English.

Zeldah.

Zeldah, 1914-1984.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

xv, 270 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cincinnati : Hebrew Union College Press, [2004]

Language Note:

Poems in Hebrew with English translation.

Summary:

Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky -- known to her Hebrew readers simply as Zelda -- was the daughter and granddaughter of prominent Hasidic rabbis from the Habad dynasty. Born in Russia in 1914, she immigrated to Palestine in 1926, studied in religious girls' schools, and became a school-teacher. She began writing her imagistic, mystical-religious poetry early in life. Filled with vivid, often dreamlike pictures from the natural world -- the strange plant, the black rose, the enchanted bird -- it was unlike anything else in Hebrew literature. When her first book was published, in 1967, it was an overwhelming critical and popular success, appealing to the diverse (and predominantly secular) Israeli public. Five more volumes followed, winning the poet numerous literary awards, including the prestigious Bialik and Brenner prizes.

Although she lived her entire life within the strictures of ultra-Orthodoxy, Zelda's many admirers came from all corners of Israeli society. As the popularity of her poetry grew, visitors flocked to her doorstep; her photograph appeared often in the newspapers; the words of her poems were set to music and sung. Reserved and daunted by publicity, she was an unlikely candidate for Israeli folk hero; nevertheless, she became a national phenomenon.

Zelda died in Jerusalem in 1984. A post-humous volume of her collected verse was published in Hebrew in 1985. The Spectacular Difference is the first full-length book of her poems to appear in English translation. A close friend and frequent guest in Zelda's home, Marcia Falk was authorized by the poet to be her translator and worked on these translations over the course of three decades. Selected from all six of Zelda's books, the poems are accompanied by the translator's essay introducing the poet and illuminating the highly personal and often startling images in her lyrics. Notes at the back of the book offer a comprehensive guide to Zelda's many references to Jewish sources.

Contents:

I. On Translating Zelda 1

II. Nature and Spirituality in Zelda's Poetry 12

I. From Leisure (1967)

The Old House 27

The Seamstress 31

With My Grandfather 33

Light a Candle 35

I Am a Dead Bird 37

The Crippled Beggar 1 39

The Crippled Beggar 2 43

The Bad Neighbor 47

Facing the Sea 55

Moon Is Teaching Bible 57

In the Dry Riverbed 59

All This Misery

When Will I Die? 61

My Peace 63

Strange Plant 65

Each Rose 67

I Stood in Jerusalem 69

Then My Soul Cried Out 71

I Banished from My Heart 73

Leisure 75

From the Songs of Childhood 77

II. From The Invisible Carmel (1971)

The Invisible Carmel 81

[In his eyes, birds of paradise] 83

New Fruit in the Season of Childhood 85

The Sun Lit a Wet Branch 101

For the Light Is My Joy 103

Be Not Far 107

You Call Out Silence to Me 109

When You Were Here 111

[I lie in my house] 113

Savage Dialogue 115

III. From Be Not Far (1974)

Black Rose 119

When I Said the Blessing over the Candles 121

When the King Was Alive 123

Cast Me Not Away 125

The Fine Sand, the Terrible Sand 129

Let Your Voice Be Heard, O Morning Blessings 133

Enchanted Bird 137

A Woman Who Has Reached a Very Old Age 139

Each of Us Has a Name 141

All Night I Wept 145

Place of Fire 147

IV. From Surely A Mountain, Surely Fire (1977)

[I do not like all trees equally] 153

Yom Kippur Eve 157

[When boulders crumble] 159

[The shadow of the white mountain] 161

Mephiboshet 165

Distant Shame 167

Ancient Pines 171

[I awoke

the house was lit] 173

[Everything went awry] 175

[In the morning, I thought] 177

V. From The Spectacular Difference (1981)

In My Dream 181

The Friendship of the White Jasmine 183

Jasmine Branch 185

[From the legends buried] 187

The Fine Light of My Peace 189

The Orange Butterfly 191

[The first rain

] 193

[Her hair, burnished copper] 195

Children in the School for the Blind 197

Who Can Resist the Beauty of the Light 199

Sun-Startled Pines 201

Tree of Life 203

[There was something startling] 205

Ancient Song 207

Uncombed Hair 209

Island 213

In the Moon's Domain 215

In the Hallway 217

The Whales 219

Heavy Silence 221

VI. From Beyond All Distance (1984)

On That Night of Stars 225

Pause 227

[I shall not float unreined] 231

When Yearnings 233

Two Elements 235

About Facts 237

In the Hospital 239

1. When a horse is sold in the marketplace 239

2. Beyond the wall, a sick old woman 241

3. You are mistaken 243

4. My soul peered through the lattices 245

5. When the woman 247.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0878202218

0878202226

OCLC:

52970306