Shai Agnon is the only Hebrew-language writer to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Agnon being awarded the prize, Toby Press has been releasing Agnon’s work in English translation. Today, host Marcela Sulak reads from Agnon’s introduction to the “Book of the State,” one of his little-known political satires.
“… The State is a metaphysical concept rendered into something physical which feigns meta-physicality. When you attempt to approach it as a meta-physical entity it slips back into physicality; if one considers it in physical terms it suddenly reverts into meta-physicality.”
In this introduction, we see the role Agnon envisioned for himself as someone standing at the crossroads – a traditional figure between eastern European traditional Orthodoxy and modern Israeli life.
Text:
“Introduction,” translated by Sara Daniel, in The Orange Peel and Other Satires. S. Y. Agnon. With annotations and a foreword by Jeffrey Saks. Toby Press, 2015.
Music:
Avishai Cohen Trio – Dreaming; Beyond; Variations in G Minor
Producer: Laragh Widdess
Technical producer: Alex Benish
