Avraham Shlonsky: Encyclopedia - Avraham Shlonsky

Avraham Shlonsky

Avraham Shlonsky (1900 - 1973), Hebrew אברהם שלונסקי, was an Israeli poet born in Ukraine. He was important in the poetry of modern Hebrew, influencing literature in Israel in the fields of translation, editing, and drama. He made his reputation as an innovator in the Hebrew language. He earned the nickname "Lashonsky" from the wisecrackers of his generation because lashon means "language".

Avraham Shlonsky - Life

When he was 13, he was sent to Israel to study at the prestigious Herzliya Hebrew High School in Tel Aviv. When the First World War broke out, he returned to Russia.

Shlonsky published his first poem in 1919 in the newspaper Ha-Shiluah. In 1921 he relocated to the Land of Israel as a development worker, working in road paving and building construction. At the same time, he contributed to Jewish cultural life in the form of pop songs for the satirical stage productions of the time, and for the balls that were a tradition in early Tel Aviv for the Purim holiday. Even then, he showed a tendency to witty writing, incorporating linguistic inventions. In addition, he edited the literature columns in a few newspapers.

Gradually he became the representative of the "rebel" group against the poetry of Bialik and his generation, particularly their characteristic clichés. His group tried to create a youthful, new and lively poetry, not handed down by the literary establishment. This fact was evident in that, for years, Shlonsky's poetry was not taught in school alongside the poems of Bialik, Shaul Tchernichovsky, David Shimoni, and others.

In 1933 Shlonsky founded the literary weekly Turim, which was identified with the "Yachdav" society in which Natan Alterman and Leah Goldberg were also members. As an editor, Shlonsky gave poets just starting out an opportunity to publish their poems. Dalia Rabikovich merited one such opportunity when her first poem was published in the literary quarterly Orlogin that Shlonsky edited.

His sensitive activity on behalf of Boris Gaponov is especially remembered to his credit. Gaponov, as editor of the Communist Party daily in an auto plant in Soviet Georgia, translated the Georgian epic The Knight in the Panther's Skin by Shota Rustaveli into Hebrew. (Shneiderman 1970) Shlonsky orchestrated the publication of the translation in Israel, and was among those working to enable Gaponov to immigrate to Israel. Gaponov, who had learned Hebrew by listening to Israel Radio broadcasts, finally immigrated when he was very sick and his days were numbered. Israeli television viewers of the time remember the image of Shlonsky stroking Gaponov's head in a loving, fatherly manner, as the latter lay on his sickbed.

Despite his reputation for comic wit, Shlonsky did not shrink from the tragic situation around him, but rather expressed it in his works. In the poem "Distress" he laments the fate of the victims of the First World War and of the Jews who suffered from pogroms in Ukraine during the Bolshevik revolution.

During the Holocaust, he published a collection of verse titled ממחשכים (from concealing shadows) in which he expressed his feelings from that darkest period in human history. He particularly lamented the fate of the Jews in a diseased Europe.

In 1967 Shlonsky won the Israel Prize for literature.

Avraham Shlonsky passed away in Tel Aviv in 1973.

Avraham Shlonsky - Works

His collection of verse Rough Stones exemplifies his works as a mature poet. Poems from the Long Corridor is a collection of reflections on the nature of life and death.

Shlonsky is also considered among the best Hebrew children's poets, for books such as Mickey Who? and Me and Tali in Lhama Country.

The play Utzli-Gutzli, about the dwarf Rumpelstiltskin of German legend, became a classic among Hebrew children's plays. In Shlonsky's translation for the stage, all of the monologues and dialogues are spoken in rhyme. They incorporate sophisticated wordplay using the Hebrew language at a high level. The following example from Utzli-Gutzli is presented with a transliteration, placing accents on stressed syllables. An unauthorized translation follows.

In translation of foreign-language works, Shlonsky's uniqueness is evident. The Shlonskian style is prominent from the first lines onward. Shlonsky translated some of the best world classics: William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Romain Rolland, and others.

In his distinguished translation of Hamlet, which a score of Hebrew translators had already tackled, Shlonsky's distinctive language is again evident. He translated Shakespeare from Russian, as he was not a master of English. Yet translating at second hand did not mar the quality of his result. When Hamlet tells his mother Gertrude not to sleep with his uncle Claudius, who murdered his father, Shlonsky uses the consonance min`i dodayikh midodi: "withhold your love from my uncle", where the unusual word dodayikh (your love) evokes the Song of Solomon. The conventional translation is al ta`ali al yetzu`ei dodi (do not go upon my uncle's couch).

Avraham Shlonsky - Selected puns attributed

• When some firm-breasted young women passed by, he let slip, "Here's the latest, leading with the top story" (in literal translation, here's the news / new women, chief part foremost).
• On the Matate Theater: "the bit of tea (me`at ha-te) left over from the kettle" (kumkum, the name of the previous theater).
• To a lass who wanted to present him with a flower (perach): "I'll gladly accept your soft mouth (pe rakh)!" When she tried to explain that she meant with a chet (a letter of the Hebrew alphabet), he replied "I'll take the sin (chet') upon myself."

Avraham Shlonsky - Selected coinages attributed

• by the way: flirt.
• someone who goes around with a transistor radio glued to one ear: radiot.
• cheating on a woman for the first time: keren hayesod. The phrase, literally "The Foundation Fund", is the Hebrew name of the United Israel Appeal. But the word keren (fund) can also mean "horn" as in cuckoldry—or as in the horned Moses of art history.
• cheating on a woman habitually: keren kayemet (the Jewish National Fund, where kayemet means "enduring").
• the Ararat café in early Tel Aviv, where penniless writers gathered: "It's an acronym for ani rotze rak te (I only want tea)."
• the eagerness of literary folk for prizes: prize-titution (prastitutzia).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Avraham Shlonsky", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki