DEC - Look There

December review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2017: Look There by Agi Mishol, 2006. [collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love category]

My selection for "a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love" was found in a favorite bookstore in Minnesota, and happened to be published by a small Minnesota press! It is also translated from Hebrew, a language close to my heart, and I felt a connection on that level as well. I love translation. I took a Spanish translation class in college, and thought that's what I wanted to do for a while. I love the idea of translation not being just literal, word-for-word copy, but trying to harness the heft and feeling of a phrase. The introduction by Lisa Katz, the translator of this collection, was insightful and intriguing in her descriptions of how she came to some of the translation decisions that were made. I loved having that extra little window into another layer of the text.

Many of the poems in this book are also about Israel. My brother is currently serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, and my relationship to Israel has constantly been in flux, so clearly this collection made me have some feelings about all that. I miss my brother, I am proud of my brother, I am mad at my brother, I don't understand my brother. A lot of things wrapped up in a single poem that has been difficult for me to parse.