The Spectacular Difference: Selected Poems of Zelda - Hardcover

Mishkovsky, Zelda Schneurson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0878202218 ISBN 13: 9780878202218

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004

Synopsis

From the publication of her first book in 1967 until her death in 1984, the modest and soft-spoken woman known to her Hebrew readers simply as Zelda received an extraordinary amount of public attention. Her six books of verse were honored by Israel's most prestigious literary awards and have remained bestsellers beyond the poet's lifetime. Marcia Falk, a well-known poet in her own right, was a good friend of Zelda's and a frequent visitor to her Jerusalem home. Fulfilling a promise she made long ago to her friend, Falk presents here the first major compilation of Zelda's poetry in English translation. A devoutly religious Jew descended from a line of prominent Hasidic rabbis, Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky inhabited the world of ultra-Orthodoxy her entire life. Her utterly unique poetry, which draws abundantly from classical Jewish texts, portrays at the same time a world of personal mystical imagery - the ""strange plant,"" ""enchanted bird,"" ""black rose,"" ""golden butterfly."" Marcia Falk's sensitive translations, lucid introduction, and comprehensive notes to the poems reveal the power of Zelda's poetry to create out of inner experience strikingly original pictures that reach beyond the borders of tradition to redeem pain and celebrate life.

About this title

About the Author

Marcia Falk's previous books include a bilingual (Hebrew and English) re-creation of Jewish prayer, The Book of Blessings; an acclaimed translation of the biblical Song of Songs; and a translation of the Yiddish poetry of Malka Heifetz Tussman, With Teeth in the Earth (also available from Wayne State University Press).

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0878202218
• ISBN 13: 9780878202218
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224