ABOUT MY LOGO: Blackbird emerging from an inkwell
The blackbird - shachrur in Hebrew - was my first bird-love in Israel. Blackbird is the title of my first book of Hebrew poetry which won the prestigious Haim Hazaz poetry prize.
Although the local nightingale is the thrush identified with the Land of Israel in the Bible, within Israel's current borders we rarely enjoy a visit from the multi-songed nightingale whose habitat today is in TransJordan among the rushes of the Jordan river. So the blackbird our chief thrush.
It is with excitement that I await the season of the blackbird's unique song, which begins in the Hebrew month of Shvat - December-January for everybody else "out there." Shvat is the month of my own birthday so I feel personally serenaded when my courtyard jet black beauty with golden beak and throat begins his seasonal mating song from within the branches of the Jerusalem pine in my yard.
When the Beatles sang, "Blackbird singing in the dead of night," they approximated the truth. The blackbird begins his song in darkess one hour before sunrise, thus playing Orpheaus.
The source of the bird's name, shachrur in Hebrew, is "shachar", - sunrise - and "shachor" means black. Typically, in the Hebrew language, one word carries many meanings. This is reflected the writings of the Bible and the centuries of rich Jewish scholarship when Hebrew was a language of prayer and learning and was not spoken every day.
The rebirth of the Hebrew tongue is one of the miracles of modern Israel. I longed to write poetry in Hebrew in order to tap into the rich history of my people.
After publishing three volumes of Hebrew poetry, I enjoy writing again in English and have begun translating many of my Hebrew poems.
I hope to print some of these poems on my new site.
And as we say in Hebrew, Lehitraot, see you soon.
or in short
Lehit'
Shira
The blackbird - shachrur in Hebrew - was my first bird-love in Israel. Blackbird is the title of my first book of Hebrew poetry which won the prestigious Haim Hazaz poetry prize.
Although the local nightingale is the thrush identified with the Land of Israel in the Bible, within Israel's current borders we rarely enjoy a visit from the multi-songed nightingale whose habitat today is in TransJordan among the rushes of the Jordan river. So the blackbird our chief thrush.
It is with excitement that I await the season of the blackbird's unique song, which begins in the Hebrew month of Shvat - December-January for everybody else "out there." Shvat is the month of my own birthday so I feel personally serenaded when my courtyard jet black beauty with golden beak and throat begins his seasonal mating song from within the branches of the Jerusalem pine in my yard.
When the Beatles sang, "Blackbird singing in the dead of night," they approximated the truth. The blackbird begins his song in darkess one hour before sunrise, thus playing Orpheaus.
The source of the bird's name, shachrur in Hebrew, is "shachar", - sunrise - and "shachor" means black. Typically, in the Hebrew language, one word carries many meanings. This is reflected the writings of the Bible and the centuries of rich Jewish scholarship when Hebrew was a language of prayer and learning and was not spoken every day.
The rebirth of the Hebrew tongue is one of the miracles of modern Israel. I longed to write poetry in Hebrew in order to tap into the rich history of my people.
After publishing three volumes of Hebrew poetry, I enjoy writing again in English and have begun translating many of my Hebrew poems.
I hope to print some of these poems on my new site.
And as we say in Hebrew, Lehitraot, see you soon.
or in short
Lehit'
Shira
No comments:
Post a Comment