On this week’s episode, host Marcela Sulak reads poetry by Maya Tevet Dayan. Published in both Rachel Tzvia Back’s translation and forthcoming translation by Ayelet Rose, they are Dayan’s first poems to appear in English. Born in Tel Aviv, Maya Tevet Dayan grew up in Hod Hasharon and received her Ph.D at Tel Aviv University. Dayan’s landscapes, covering childhood to adulthood and parenting, are characterized by attention to time and space. Here is a segment from her poem, Tides.
“Through all the births,
through all the women who birthed one another until
you were born,
This pre-historic fear has now passed on
to you, the fear that must never
be named. Forming
ripples in the dark.
You’re in the living room, in the empty moon,
in abandonment, the child moves in her sleep, the dog is circling the kennel.
If ever there was a critical time to caress a dog,
that time is now.”
Text:
“Sister” and “Hallow’s Eve” in Modern Poetry in Translation, summer issue 2016. Translator: Rachel Tzvia Back
Other poems translated by Ayelet Rose Gottlieb for the Hebrew library in Berlin Magazine for poetry and literature.
Music:
Megazord – The Megazord
Galit Wolf – Hana canaan bederech habait
Yehudit Rabich – Shir lala sham
בורדו – גשם יורד
קורין אלאל – שיר לשירה
Corrections: The first poem host Marcela reads is titled “My Sister,” not “Sister.” The second poem, “Hallow’s Eve,” was not published in MPT.
Producer: Ariella Plachta
Technical producer: Tammy Goldenberg
