Table of Contents

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 Hardship The Irritating Manner in Which I Exist in Your Fancy From the Depth I Called Hey When Soft Angel Plumage Morning and She Pees Estate Woman With Pitchfork Nocturnal I Nocturnal II Shaheeda DAN ARMON (from Duration, 1986; Footprints, 1989) The Squash Watchman The Apple the Cucumber and the Plum Midas of Sugar Stairwell *(First line: In a temporary shelter Play in the Kitchen *(First line: In a gesture of argument) Eight Short Ones Baking *(First line: a dark back yard) Fire Candle *(First line: The wondrous wilting of a flower) Song of the Valley *(First line: We've stabilized the emotion) Travel YITZHAK LAOR (from Night in a Foreign Hotel, 1992; And Loveth Many Days, 1996) A Note Silhouette Sleeping in Another Place Poetry Gouging Sweat The Narrator's Death MAYA BEJERANO (from Selected Poems, 1972-1986; Voice, 1987; Beauty Is Rage, 2001) Poetry Data Processing #10 Data Processing #12 Data Processing # 14 Lust Don't Stop the Motion Passion-dress The Hands of Autumn A Galilean Landscape, Important to Note The Pecan Leaves RONNY SOMECK (from Rice Paradise-Selected Poems 1976-1996) Dog After Dog Greek Music Solo A Soldier in the Desert. A Romance in Photos Johnny From A Distance the Tombstones Look Like a Flock of Storks Handcuffs. Street Poem Poverty Line Jasmine. A Poem on Sandpaper Autumn. A French Movie Tear Comptroller Report Thirty Seconds to Charge the Nipple Tractors Lions' Milk Poem to a Girl Already Born In Answer to a Question: When Did Your Peace Begin? A Pound of Child Blues on the Life That Was Almost Mine Rice Paradise HAVA PINHAS-COHEN (from The Passage of the Doe, 1994; A River and Forgetfulness, 1998) Explicitly Named On the Eve of the Holiday Fear A Variable Texture Boundaries Time Pieta The Way to the River A Hand Empty of Body AMIR OR (from Face, 1991; Ransoming the Dead, 1994; Poem, 1996) A Pint of Beer From the White Dictionary No Trail Markers Synopsis Immortal Poem (six sections) TAMIR GREENBERG (from Self-Portrait with Quantum and a Dead Cat, 1993; The Thirsty Soul, 2002) Ode Son Dusk Elegy My Grandma Rachel Age Fifteen Annabel Lee Poetics 1 Poetics 2 Poetics 3 Journey 1 Journey 2 SHARRON HASS (from The Mountain Mother Is Gone, 1997; The Stranger and the Everyday Woman, 2001) Our Life is the Life of Beasts To the Fox The Stranger The Great Illusion The Flutist I Stand in the Circle and Look Around Me Afternoon Slumber Smooth Boys The Sun's Mooring The Girl Fumbles Beyond The Forest AFTERWORD The Poems of Irit Katzir ABOUT THE AUTHORS INDEX

About the Author

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.

Reviews

"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