Article
Editorial: February 2004
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January 18, 2006
Meir Wieseltier, having written "anti-clerical, anti-government, anti-war and anti-military, even anti-poetry" all his life, was awarded the Israel Prize in 2000, "by the Israeli establishment to its most anti-establishment poet," as his translator Shirley Kaufman writes in her {id="3146" title="essay"} on the poet. Both Wallach and Wieseltier experimented with the Hebrew language, resorting to virtuosic "verbal violence" in order to stretch its possibilities beyond the limit.
"The fact is this: poetry keeps me hanging onto the bitterness that we call life, and life devotes me to poetry. I resent existing, but existing – damn it to hell – has a certain allure, as they say."
One of the greatest and most influential Greek poets of the 20th century, {id="2461" title="Nikos Karouzos"} wrote poetry rich in philosophical, religious and mythological ideas, with ‘existence’ as the key concept to his oeuvre. "The poet’s drama, in my opinion, is not to express reality, but to overcome it," he declared, and went on to do so.
In spite of spending many years in sanatoriums, prisons and in political exile – at one stage being prohibited by the Greek junta from publishing – {id="2465" title="Yiannis Ritsos"} has turned into one of Greece’s most prolific authors, writing plays and essays as well as poetry. On PIW, we’re publishing his book-length masterpiece {id="2679" title="Moonlight Sonata"}, one of those poems that, as one critic wrote, "revealed to us the face and soul of Greece."
Then, our new Croatian poet {id="1749" title="Anka Zagar"} is hard to categorize. Sometimes reminiscent of nursery rhymes, her poems are broken up by strange syntax and other linguistic oddities, with the ‘logic’ of a dream or stream of consciousness narrative. And finally, from Slovenia comes {id="5042" title="Peter Semolic"}, the influential originator of an entirely new movement in literature called "The New Simplicity" by Slovenian literary critics. "The flow of his poetry is reminiscent of a big river, silent, seemingly motionless but incredible powerful," writes our editor Iztok Osojnik about his work. As Semolic himself tells his readers:
. . . don’t read me like a story, read me like concentric circles
on the water . . .
The poets laureate will have to wait for now: this month, we have got the rebels, iconoclasts, non-conformists, innovators, resistance fighters, exiled communists and other scandalous, transgressive and subversive elements on PIW.
From Israel, we bring you two representatives of the so-called "Tel Aviv Poets", {id="3182" title="Yona Wallach"} and {id="3172" title="Meir Wieseltier"}. Sometimes called ‘The Sixties Generation", they encapsulate everything that decade stands for. Yona Wallach was the first poet to inject Hebrew poetry with rock ‘n’ roll and a feminine sexuality, starting a feminist revolution all by herself. Her work as well as her lifestyle – bold, free, considered scandalous by many – attracted and repelled readers in equal measure. Meir Wieseltier, having written "anti-clerical, anti-government, anti-war and anti-military, even anti-poetry" all his life, was awarded the Israel Prize in 2000, "by the Israeli establishment to its most anti-establishment poet," as his translator Shirley Kaufman writes in her {id="3146" title="essay"} on the poet. Both Wallach and Wieseltier experimented with the Hebrew language, resorting to virtuosic "verbal violence" in order to stretch its possibilities beyond the limit.
"The fact is this: poetry keeps me hanging onto the bitterness that we call life, and life devotes me to poetry. I resent existing, but existing – damn it to hell – has a certain allure, as they say."
One of the greatest and most influential Greek poets of the 20th century, {id="2461" title="Nikos Karouzos"} wrote poetry rich in philosophical, religious and mythological ideas, with ‘existence’ as the key concept to his oeuvre. "The poet’s drama, in my opinion, is not to express reality, but to overcome it," he declared, and went on to do so.
In spite of spending many years in sanatoriums, prisons and in political exile – at one stage being prohibited by the Greek junta from publishing – {id="2465" title="Yiannis Ritsos"} has turned into one of Greece’s most prolific authors, writing plays and essays as well as poetry. On PIW, we’re publishing his book-length masterpiece {id="2679" title="Moonlight Sonata"}, one of those poems that, as one critic wrote, "revealed to us the face and soul of Greece."
Then, our new Croatian poet {id="1749" title="Anka Zagar"} is hard to categorize. Sometimes reminiscent of nursery rhymes, her poems are broken up by strange syntax and other linguistic oddities, with the ‘logic’ of a dream or stream of consciousness narrative. And finally, from Slovenia comes {id="5042" title="Peter Semolic"}, the influential originator of an entirely new movement in literature called "The New Simplicity" by Slovenian literary critics. "The flow of his poetry is reminiscent of a big river, silent, seemingly motionless but incredible powerful," writes our editor Iztok Osojnik about his work. As Semolic himself tells his readers:
. . . don’t read me like a story, read me like concentric circles
on the water . . .
© Corine Vloet
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