The Spectacular Difference: Selected poems by Zelda (review)

Known to Hebrew readers as "Zelda," Zelda Schneaurson Mishkovsky was an ultra-Orthodox Jew who descended from a long line of prominent Chasidic rabbis. She was born in Russia in 1914, immigrated to Palestine in 1926, and died in Jerusalem in 1984. Her six books of poetry have won many Israeli literary awards, as well as being "best-sellers." As translator Marcia Falk says in her introduction, throughout this work are seen "…images at once evocatively sensual and suggestive of a deep spirituality…and an intensely personal connection with the natural world." Choose any page and find images such as from "New Fruit in the Season of Childhood":"A light, sudden bird/prepared my soul for the song of the grasses/for the scent of the olive trees' amazement,/for the joy of the clouds/and the flickering of the glass shards." Some of these poems, such as "Each of Us Has A Name," may be familiar as they have become popularly used in prayer books and services in the U.S. Each poem is a parallel text Hebrew and English, adding to the visual sensuality of the pieces, as well as supporting a bi-lingual approach.