THE GATES OF MEMPHIS - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

Hebrew poetry began to emerge from the deep freeze of mostly religious texts toward the end of the nineteenth century, and soon blossomed into a garden of new forms, styles, and contents. Among the poets of the recent and present generations, Nathan Alterman (1910-1970) stands out as one of the most prominent, even foremost, poets of today's Hebrew landscape. Nevertheless, because of his unique Altermanesque style, he has hardly ever been successfully translated.

The subject matter of the present ballad is the human response to nature-imposed calamities (described in the Biblical order of the Plagues of Egypt, Exodus 7 to 12). It is a monumental verbal edifice, built of meticulously rhymed and metered stanzas and strophes. It is the rigorous, syllable-perfect structure that gives the ballad its unique dithyrambic power. Perath's translation has preserved this character to perfection. The problematics of this particular version are humorously discussed in the appended chapter 'Mystic Dialogue'. The sweeping language, together with the humane undercurrent, make this reading even today a moving experience.

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