Host Marcela Sulak reads Aharon Shabtai’s poem ‘Our Land’ (translated by Peter Cole), which features a kind of ‘afterlife’ Tel Aviv:

… Soon we will all / meet in the Tel Aviv below—
Weinstein the milkman, / and Haim the iceman,
Solganik / and the staff at the dry-goods co-op:
Hannah and Frieda and Tzitron; / and the one-armed man
from the clothing store / at the corner
near Café Ditze…

Aharon Shabtai was born in 1939 in Tel Aviv and spent his childhood on Kibbutz Merhavia. He’s the brother of Yaakov Shabtai, author of Past Continuous.

His poetry’s incredibly intimate references to his personal life have made Shabtai a controversial figure among contemporary Israeli poets and critics. He’s also an outspoken critic of Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories, and of human rights violations. Here’s the ending of ‘Nostalgia’ (translated by Peter Cole):

And when it’s all over,
my dear, dear reader,
on which benches will we have to sit,
those of us who shouted “Death to the Arabs!”
and those who claimed they “didn’t know”?

Texts:

War & Love, Love & War: New and Selected Poems, translated by Peter Cole (New Directions) October 29, 2010.

J’Accuse, translated by Peter Cole (New Directions) 2003.

Music:

‘Next week’ – Lyrics by Aharon Shabtai, performed by Benny Berman

‘Redy Redy’ – Lyrics by Aharon Shabtai, music by Jack in the Box

Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Lior Peleg