Hold on to the Sun

Acknowledgments

AcknoWledGMentS the writing of a book encounters those readers who as sounding boards bring it into being—even more so in the burgeoning first years of literary writing. My parents, rina and Pinchas Govrin, profoundly conversant with world literature and the treasures of Hebrew, were my first addressees. Michaël and emmanuel levinas, emmanuel and Stéphan Mosès, uri and Shlomo Pinès, Shlomith rimmon-kenan, david Brezis, and Jacques derrida later joined them. they read what was exposed and what was concealed between the lines, and they heard the continuing voice from the Jewish mystical tradition to modern avant-garde prose. Parts of these stories were written all over the world during my travels with Haim Brezis, my companion and husband. those were still the days of the typewriter, and 269 in order to minimize its sound i used to leave our room to type on whatever shore was nearby. these landscapes, including the childhood northern seascape of Becki Brezis, my mother-in-law, reverberate in the writing. My thanks to Menachem Peri and Moshe ron, the editors of the original Hebrew text, Hold On to the Sun: Short Stories and Legends. thanks also to david rosenberg, whose enthusiasm as an ever close reader resulted in the commission of the first english translation.thanks, too, to nili cohen andthe institute for thetranslation of Hebrew literature for their support and to dalya Bilu for the original careful translation into english. My friends irène Shraer and nessa rapoport spontaneously translated their own readings into french and english which encouraged me to think internationally.the Jerusalem poets’ friendship with Peter cole brought about the joint translation of the poem “Won’tYou See” that opens the book. Gilaramras-rauchincluded“laPromenade,”thenpublished in a magazine, in her anthology, Facing the Holocaust, and leo edelstein, the editor of Pataphysics (whom i met in Melbourne thanks to david Shapiro and the international “poetry network”), first published the story “Hold on to the Sun.” in my last overseas telephone conversation with Shaindy rudoff, before her premature death, she asked for “Betweentwo and four” for Maggid’s issue on “Jewish Bodies ,” edited by Michael kramer. the essays, written along the years, are part of my 270 Acknowledgments ongoing conversation with my mother—during her life and after her death. in publishing this book, i hope to honor all those people who generously transmitted to me bits and pieces of her story. i am grateful to rachel feldhay Brenner and to Alan Berger, the editor of Second Generation Voices, thanks to whom i added the meditation “Journey to Poland” to the original “letter from the regions of delusion,” addressed to my parents.the original letter was published byYzhak Bezalel in Davar, and years laterYaakov Besser published the full two-part essay in Itton 77.Barbara Harshav hears deeply my voice in her translations both of my novels and of two of the essays included here.William Philips and edith kurzweil opened to me for years the Partisan Review as another “home for thinking.” i am grateful to all of them. “facing evil” was written at the request of noah flug, the president of the international Auschwitz committee, and originally published in Ha’aretz. i’m grateful to ilana kurshan for reviewing its translation. Basmat Hazan encouraged me to write “Selichot in krakow: Migrations of a Melody,” andAdam rovner published it in the online journal Zeek— along with a fragment of my mother’s recorded voice. As always, my gratitude goes to deborah Harris, my agent and friend. But it is Judith Graves Miller who is responsible for the present iteration of Hold On to the Sun: True Stories and Tales, from its conception to her sensitive and uncompromising revision of the translations. i want to 271 Acknowledgments thank her for the immense pleasure of collaboration, but not less for our many years of literary, theatrical, and personal friendship that stand as proof of art’s power to cross languages and cultures. Author and editor give their warmest thanks and affection to the exemplary staff at the feminist Press, to executive director Gloria Jacobs, and to elaine reuben and Shulamit reinharz of the reuben/rifkin Jewish Women Writers Series for encouraging and finally bringing to fruition this collection of texts.Working together has been joyful as well as professionally gratifying. Judith G. Miller extends her thanks to newYork university for its support of her research and...