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“People of the Galilee are strong as the sun
Rough as the terebinth tender as the oak
Fiery as the fires of Sodom
Sodden as the salt of the sea
So far from their bodies.”

Host Marcela Sulak reads some of the work of Israeli Druze poet Naim Araidi, who passed away on October 2 this year. Araidi was born in 1950 in the Druze Village of Maghar in the Galilee and received his PhD in Hebrew Literature from Bar-Ilan University. Like another Arab-Israeli writer, Anton Shammas, Araidi chose to write in Hebrew as well as Arabic.

Among the legacies of Naim Araidi is the Nissan organization for Literature, which he established in 1999. The international Nissan Festival is held annually in April in Maghar, his native village. This village of Maghar is said to have the highest density of poets per capita — 17 in a population of 1,000.

Texts:
Back to the Village by Naim Araidi, translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Herzlia: Levant, 1994.
“What Shall We Say to Whom,” translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Jerusalem Review, 5-6, 2006. 154-158.
“Jerusalem Divides,” translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Jerusalem Review, no 8. 2015, 13-14.
Other poems forthcoming in Jerusalem Review, January, 2016.

Music:
Riad El Sonbati – Ya Nassini (performed by the Jewish-Arab Orchestra)
Jamil Bey Tanburi- Samai Shad Araban (performed by the Jewish-Arab Orchestra)
Sovu Be Machol – Debka Druzit
Nadech Seisi – (Unknown)

Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Alex Benish