Dorit Weisman

Dorit Weisman

Dorit Weisman (דורית ויסמן) (İsrael)

 

Birth: 24.4.1950, Kfar-Saba, Israel

Nationality: Israeli

 

E d u c a t i o n

M.A., Literature, Creative Writing, 2001, Ben-Gurion University Jerusalem

M.Sc. (cum laude), Environmental Science, 1977, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

B.Sc., Biology, 1974, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Short CV:

Ms. Dorit Weisman, Jerusalem, Israel is an award-winning poet with international repute. A multidimensional writer, she is also a novelist, a translator, an editor, a film-maker and a literary organizer. Recipient of the EASAL (European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters), 2018, and other important prizes. She published 10 volumes of poetry, two prose books, two translation books and she is the editor of an Anthology of Israeli Women Social Protest Poetry – “The Naked Queen”.

She is the founder and editor of the Poetry Program in the Israeli TV (Channel 98), which runs several times per week. She translates the international “poem of the week” from English to Hebrew and is the founder and co-editor of “Eco-poetic poems” in a Israel.

 

Publications:

Poetry Books:

  • Scrambled Eggs in Jerusalem, 2017, Cohel Publishing.
  • selected poems in Italian and English, 2016, Fondazione Alfonso Gatto Edizione, Italy.
  • A woman like me – selected poems [in English], 2014.
  • Normal, 2013, Pardes Publishing.
  • On the Path among the Seaweeds, 2011, an artist-book with the painter Oded Zaidel.
  • Ketovet, 2008, Even-Choshen Publishers. Group publication with fellow poets.
  • Where Did you Meet the Cancer, 2006, Carmel Publishing House. Won the ACUM (Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Prize.
  • Dancing Csardas with you – poems: parting from mother, 2005, Even -Choshen Publishers.
  • What Do the Baobab Trees Stand for? – poems from the southern hemisphere, 2003, Even-Choshen Publishers. Winner of the Jerusalem Prize for Literature, 1998.
  • The Days I Visited the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sifriyat Poalim Publishing House Ltd., 1999. Winner of the Ben-Gurion University Prize for Literature, 1998. Winner of the Olshweng Prize, 2000. Winner of the Yehuda-Amichi Prize for Poetry, 2003.
  • Don’t Know the Way of a Girl With a Dress, 1998, “Tamuz Publishing House”. Winner of the Tchernichovski Prize of the Writer’s Guild.
  • A Tiger Roars Against Me, 1993, Sifriyat Poalim Publishing House Ltd.

 

Prose:

  • Edesh Klarinka, Kibutz Meuchad, 2018 (in printing), the manuscript won the ACUM (Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Prize, 2018
  • A Positive Result, Carmel Publishing House, 2010. Won the Mifal HaPayis (Lottery Programme). Won the Rabinovitz Fund for translating it to English. The book translated to English but didn’t publish, yet.

 

Editing

A Naked Queen – a protest social women poetry anthology. Kibutz Meuchad, 2013.

Mechaat Kapayim – Poetry Anthology of Social Protest (with Dr. Gilad Meiri and Noa Shakargy). Poetry Place editors, 2013.

 

Literary Prizes

*  ACUM (Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Prize, 2018, for the manuscript of Edesh Klarika.

* Poetry Prize of EASAL (European Academy of Science, Arts and Literature) 2018

* The International Poetry Prize Alfonso Gatto 2016, Salerno, Italy

* Positive Result was selected for publication by the Israel Lottery Council for Culture & Arts. It was also awarded the Rabinowitz Foundation Prize for Translation in August 2012.

  • The ACUM (Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Prize for the book Where Did you Meet the Cancer, 2006, Carmel Publishing House.

* the Prime-Minister award for writers, 2003.

  • The Yehuda-Amichay prize for poetry, 2003 [for the book The Days I Visited the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sifriyat Poalim Publishing House Ltd., 1999].
  • The Olshweng Prize, 2000 , for the book The Days I Visited the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sifriyat Poalim Publishing House Ltd., 1999.
  • The Ben-Gurion University Prize for Literature, 1998, for the book The Days I Visited the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sifriyat Poalim Publishing House Ltd., 1999.
  • The Jerusalem Prize for Literature, 1998, for the book What Do the Baobab Trees Stand for? – poems from the southern hemisphere, 2003, Even-Choshen Publishers.
  • The Tchernichovski Prize of the Writer’s Guild for the book Don’t Know the Way of a Girl With a Dress, 1998, “Tamuz Publishing House”.

 

 

SESTINA FOR A CASHIER

 

Hershey’s chocolate 7290000255903

729000287248 and 7290000135700

peach nectar and Chinese pickles

my daughter is wandering what is she doing

cracked olives 7290000046006

this cash register’s broken, you have to enter everything twice.

 

This week I worked my shifts twice

I want to go home before three

a large roll an empty bottle times six

turkey breast in marinade 7290002400

a feast this woman is making

a quarter of a chicken and Chinese pickles

 

Sitting here hours like a Chinese worker

bread and more bread that’s twice

what am I doing what am I doing

another 729000035707 and more 729000035703

72964415 it all looks to me like zero

I’ll go back home at six

 

That man acts like a child of six

everyone’s taking the Chinese pickles

7290002706724, 7290002660200

Today I’ve seen this woman twice

and this time makes three

and for my husband what am I doing

 

Hot chocolate and a six pack of beer

with the new wrinkle what am I doing

I’m tired and I see double and triple

Chinese pickles Chinese pickles Chinese pickles

someone else is taking it twice

and inside my head is black and empty

 

7290002989943, 9290003067540

7290002415107 what is hot pepper doing

7290000046006 twice

7290000047362 times six

7290000457253 again Chinese pickles

7290002871248, 7290000135703

 

7290000135703 and two times zero

again these Chinese pickles what am I doing

I want to be a girl of six think twice.

Translation from Hebrew to English: Lisa Katz

MY MOTHER, 56 YEARS LATER

The years fall off her, as in another poem, tougher,
and there, on the tree-lined boulevard, she walked lightly,
leaning on her stick. Mom, I said to her, I want you
running like a girl, running on the boulevard,
I want to photograph you running on the boulevard,
but she didn’t run, my mother, I photographed her weeping,
the leaves falling around her. Nothing has changed
in 56 years, she said. Sat on a bench on top of a rocky mound,
as she did many years ago, forgetting the inflammation in her gums
and the pain in her knees. With a soft, quiet face, listened to the leaves.

Translation from Hebrew to English: Rachel Yakobovitch (2006)

 

 

DANCING CSÁRDÁS[1] WITH YOU

 

I continued to hold your hand

pressed my cheek

against  your warm temples

and your cheeks

 

your face was growing yellow

 

your stomach still warm

 

I heard Tammy say to you:

“I hope we’ll meet

again”

 

I also hope

to dance Csárdás with you

in some wonderful place

 

my mother

 

they put a sticker on your forehead

 

they put you in a pale-blue sack

 

a private ambulance

took you away to cool.

 

Translation from Hebrew to English: Becka Mckay (2005)

 

 

 

 

 

FAMILY HONOR 

 

In memory of Hamda Abu Ranem

 

A headline in “Ha’aretz” 23rd February 2007:

After the eighth murder in the family

the women decided to speak up.

 

I Hamda I was lying in bed

in Ramla waiting

 

Nayfe Abu Ranem

August 2000

Susan Abu Ranem

February 2002

 

I Hamda lying in my parent’s home

For the honor of the family

 

Zinat Abu Ranem

November 2003

Sabrine Abu Ranem

July 2004

 

I Hamda wanna come home

don’t wanna hide no more

 

Amira Abu Ranem

January 2005

Reim Abu Ranem

Mars 2006

 

He say me talk too much

On telephone, with my cousin

 

Sarihan Abu Ranem

April 2006

 

Now new year, Middle of January 2007

Eleven O’clock morning

I Hamda lying in bed

 

Translation from Hebrew to English: Liora Bing-Heidecker

From the book Normal, Publisher: Pardes, 2006

 

 

A SMALL POEM ON SMALL BREASTS

 

It suits me, being a poet

if big breasts are prose

and small ones are poetry

then my tits are just the right size

all the more so since you love them all, just as they are

especially stretched with my arms overhead.

 

From the book Don’t know the way of a girl with a dress

Tammuz Publishers, 1998

Translation: Rachel Yakobovitz