During this last week, here, as in many places, it's been terribly cold. The kind of cold that has me rethinking my reactions to conversations I've had over the years with people who live in the Mediterranean climates of California (where I grew up) and refuse to leave. My grandmother, for one, said of the year she spent in Detroit, "you couldn't pay me enough to go live in that cold." (She lived in or around Burbank, California for much of her life.) "But four real seasons. . ." I probably retorted, when I should've shut my mouth and listened deeply. Anyway, since most of you probably survived some version -- or worse, New England! -- than I did, I'll shut up and move on to our Israel/Palestine poem of the week! (May it be warming up if it's been cold wherever you are!)
This week's poem is "Lotem Abdel Shafi" by Aharon Shabtai and translated by Peter Cole. Shabtai is an Israeli poet critical of the occupation. This poem is so interesting to me because this poem teaches me a lot as a writer, or at least presents particular approaches. Here Shabtai includes details that may be unfamiliar to American readers (this may be more Cole's problems and choices as a translator as well) such as who Haidar Abdel Shafi is. I think the poem does include enough detail that one can still enjoy the poem without knowing. (I admit I looked Haidar Abdel Shafi on Wikipedia, though I did not have to look up Ben Gurion, for example, though I wonder whether most poetry readers would need to.) Since I'm writing about Israel/Palestine to an American audience, I often wonder about what knowledge or presuppositions can I assume? how much do I need to explain? how much can I put in notes? how important is it to each poem and the whole that the reader understand these contextual details that to me seem so resonant and important? This poem shows one way of answering those questions of knowledge versus image.
What I also really like about this poem is its approach to a positive vision, a positive future of coexistence. I knew I wanted to write a poem with a positive vision of the future, but for a long time I really struggled with that. I finally did write a draft I'm still working on. In Shabtai's poem, I feel like you can see both the vision and the struggle. What an inspiration!
Enjoy! Have a wonderful productive and peaceful week!
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