Avraham Shlonsky

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Avraham Shlonsky bigraphy, stories - Israeli poet

Avraham Shlonsky : biography

March 6, 1900 – May 18, 1973

Avraham Shlonsky (March 6, 1900 – May 18, 1973; ; ) was a significant and dynamic Israeli poet and editor born in the Russian Empire.

He was influential in the development of modern Hebrew and its literature in Israel through his many acclaimed translations of literary classics, particularly from Russian, as well as his own original Hebrew children’s classics. Known for his humor, Shlonsky earned the nickname "Lashonsky" from the wisecrackers of his generation (lashon means "tongue", i.e., "language") for his unusually clever and astute innovations in the newly evolving Hebrew language.

Selected coinages attributed

  • derekh-agav (intentional misspelling of the original phrase, meaning ‘by the way’; in Shlonsky’s version, it means ‘the way of longing’): flirt.
  • someone who goes around with a transistor radio glued to one ear: radiot.
  • being cheated on by 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.
  • being cheated on by a woman habitually: keren kayemet (the Jewish National Fund, where kayemet means "enduring").
  • the Ararat (אררט) café in early Tel Aviv, where penniless writers gathered: It’s an acronym for "Ani Rotze Rak Te (אני רוצה רק תה, I only want tea)." (Misspelled)
  • the eagerness of literary folk for prizes: prize-titution (prastitutzia).

Works

His collection of verse Rough Stones exemplifies his work 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 finest 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.

yed`ú kol ir, kol kfar vapélekh: ידעו כל עיר, כל כפר ופלך:
reishít chokhmá – misím lamélekh! ראשית חוכמה – מסים למלך!
misím, misím, ve`ód misím – מסים, מסים, ועוד מסים –
veló chasím al hakisím! ולא חסים על הכיסים!
Every city, province, town, learn the first rule: pay the crown!
Tax and tariff, fee and fare, not a pocket shall you spare!

In the translation of foreign-language works, Shlonsky’s uniqueness is evident. The characteristic Shlonskian style is recognizable from the very first lines of each work and continues to be greatly admired by writers and readers of Hebrew literature. Shlonsky translated many of the world’s best known 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).