Within the Song to Live: Selected Poems [With CD (Audio)]

By Natan Yonatan and Janice Silverman Rebibo

From the age of sixteen, Natan was alreardy utilizing diverse layers of the Hebrew language such as modern spoken Hebrew combined with the ancient language of the Bible and the text of the Mishna, Talmud and the Agada. Natan Yonatan's unique multi-layered poetry, speaks to the heart and soul of admirers and spectators both in Israel, Jewish communities and the world over. Included with the book is a CD, comprised of a selection of Natan Yonatan's composed poems put to music. The songs are performed by The Brothers and The Sisters, one of Israel's top folk groups. The CD includes eleven songs, three of which are performed both in English and in Hebrew.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9652293458
• ISBN13: 9789652293459
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Gefen Books
• Length: 143 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.3" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A poet of love and longing from the land of Israel

This work is a dual- language selection from the twenty -odd volumes of poetry that Natan Yonatan published in his lifetime. Natan Yonatan is like Yehuda Amichai , Leah Goldberg and also Bialik and Rachel a much loved and respected Hebrew poet whose poems made into songs became part and parcel of the everyday life experience of most Israelis. In this volume there are a number of such songs, songs played over and over again, some of which even have taken on a historic dimension. For instance 'Ha-Ish Ha-Hu' is the poem most associated with the life and death of Yitzhak Rabin. Natan Yonatan was a poet of love and of nature. He too wrote many poems about his son and his sons friends. His son who fell in the Yom Kippur War is the subject of the deeply moving " Another Poem on Abasalom' " Your father loved in you all that he was not, / See now this man trembles all over. Why/ Did you think I would make you king?/ Yonatan was a well- known public figure in Israel for many years the editor of Sifriat Poalim, and President of the Writer's Association. He was an outgoing, vibrant personality who read his poems through many years up and down the land of Israel. His poetry is infused with a certain kind of romantic longing. In his famous 'Hofim' poem one can feel the mixture of longing and sadness in the land and for the land and the human soul. Without bombast and without pretentious proclamation he displayed his love and connection with the land of Israel, his intimacy with it through his very deep connection to different layers of the Hebrew language, Biblical, Mishnaic, modern. It seems to me that his poetry in Hebrew has a melodiousness which is essentially untranslatable. And that the whole range of its intonation and special beauty can be felt only in Hebrew. Nonetheless valiant efforts have been made here by translators Janice Rebibo, Richard Flantz , Mel Rosenberg, Karen Alkalay-Gut,Gidi Koren, and the poet's widow Nili Carmel-Yonatan. I close by giving a sample, a translation of one of his best known poems. The translation was made by Janice Rebibo. SHORES ARE SOMETIMES Shores are sometimes longings for a stream that used to love In these parts streams forsake us and dry up : Once I saw a shore deserted by its stream and forgotten left with a broken heart of stones and sand. So may a man be left abandoned spent and worn just like the shore. Even sea shells just like sea gulls or like the shores, sea shells too are sometimes longings for a home that used to be. There the sea alone its songs does sing. Thus among the heart shells of a man his youth to him will sing.