Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934) us is considered Israel’s national poet and one of the greatest Hebrew poets of all time. Several of his poems, particularly his immensely popular children’s verse, were set to music and proved to be among the most popular twentieth-century Hebrew songs. An essayist, storyteller, translator, and editor, he had a unique ability to use fully the entire linguistic and conceptual inventory of the Hebrew language. Bialik’s career was a turning pint in Hebrew literature, bringing Biblical Hebrew into a contemporary usage and forming the basis of its renewed vigor. His legacy remains embedded in modern Hebrew literature like an immovable foundations stone.
Atar Hadari is a poet, playwright, translator, and essayist. His poems have appeared in the times Literary supplement, American Poetry Review, Partisan Review, and many other journals, and his plays have been performed in New York, London, Boston, Los Angeles, and Provincetown.
June 2000
