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A New Book - 06/09
Hovering at a Low Altitude: The Collected Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch ($29.95 Norton)
Considered among the best Hebrew poets of all time, Dahlia Ravikovitch (1936 – 2005) fused the personal, political, and Biblical references in her poetry with assured strength and intense feeling. The book, translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld, includes a detailed and helpful introduction, notes on the translation, and footnotes to several of the poems offering alternate word choices and cultural references. In the powerful title poem a narrator watches a shepherd girl in the mountains who, the narrator knows, will shortly be murdered by an as yet unseen man -- “With a single hurling thrust one can hover / and whirl about with the speed of the wind. / Can make a getaway and persuade myself: / I haven’t seen a thing.” The poem’s power is heightened by the translators’ noting that in Hebrew slang, hovering means keeping cool, being aloof, and also carries the association of Israeli helicopters flying low over Southern Lebanon.
Ravikovitch’s poetry turned more political after the 1982 war in Lebanon, her sympathies aligning with the Palestinian people. This stance did not, according to the introduction, keep her from being “universally embraced by Israelis, whatever their ideological leanings.” This terrific collection is a gift to American readers.
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