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Among the excellent new Israeli books to have appeared in English translation in 2015, is Else Lasker-Schüler’s collected poems, My Blue Piano. Host Marcela Sulak reads several poems from the collection, including the title poem:

“At home I have a blue piano,
I, who cannot play a note.

It stands in the gloom of the cellar door,
now that the whole world has grown coarse…“

Born in Germany in 1869, Lasker-Schüler became a leader of Berlin’s Expressionist movement, coining the name “Blue Rider” for her friend Franz Marc’s famous school of painting. A few months after receiving one of Germany’s highest literary honors, she was assaulted in the streets by the Nazis at the age of 63. After fleeing to Switzerland and Alexandria, she settled in Jerusalem. She died of heart failure before the final defeat of the Nazi regime.

Text:
My Blue Piano by Else Lasker-Schüler. Translated by Brooks Haxton. Syracuse University Press, 2015.

Music (all lyrics by Else Lasker-Schüler):
Maya Amir – Mein Blaues Klavier
Galia Shargal – Imi
Elinoar Moav – Bo Elai BaLeil

Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Alex Benish