February 26, 2008
Israel Prizes awarded for literature, poetry and translation
Ha'Aretz posted a story yesterday about this year's winners of the Israel Prizes for Literature, Poetry and Translation.
Ida Fink, pictured right, took home the prize for literature (actually, all of the winners will receive their prizes at a state ceremony in Jerusalem on Israel Independence Day).
Fink is perhaps best known to English-speaking audiences for her collection of short stories, “A Scrap of Time and Other Stories.” Other works that have been translated into English include “The Journey” and “Traces: Stories.” In addition, Fink was the subject of a 2007 documentary called “The Garden That Floated Away.”
Fink was born in the Ukraine, according to Ha'Aretz, but her Wikipedia page says she was born in Zbaraz, Poland. I'm assuming this is one of those Eastern European towns that's changed ownership over the years. In any event, she spent two years in the Zbaraz ghetto before escaping in 1942. She moved to Israel in 1957 and began publishing stories in 1971. According to her Wikipedia page, her “stories revolve around the terrible choices that the Jews had to make during the Nazi era and the hardships of Holocaust survivors after the war.”
In the Poetry category, the Prize went to Tuvya Ruebner. Ruebner, a poet, editor, translator and photographer, was born in Bratislava in Slovakia in 1924. He came to Israel in 1941 and later participated for a short time in the War of Independence.
Ha'Aretz published an excerpt from what the jury said about Ruebner:
Tuvya Ruebner has been one of the foremost Hebrew poets for five decades now. His poetry grapples in a personal and unique way with the great topics of modern Jewish history, above all the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe and the experience of immigration to the Land of Israel. Ruebner's poetry is planted in two main landscapes, those of Europe and of Israel, and in this respect embodies 'the pain of two homelands' and the unresolved tension between them. This is restrained, polished and intellectual poetry. It is nourished by the ancient strata of Hebrew poetry and the best of the tradition of Central European poetry.
In the Translation category, the Prize went to Nili Mirsky, a Tel Aviv native who, according to Ha'Aretz, is considered the “patroness” of Russian literature in Israel.
Among the works she's made accessible for Hebrew-speaking audiences are Thomas Mann's “Buddenbrooks,” Leo Tolstoy's “Anna Karenina,” Fyodor Dostoevsky's “The Gambler” and “The Idiot” and books by Maxim Gorky, Nikolai Gogol, Vladimir Nabokov, Ivan Turgenev, Isaac Babel and Anton Chekhov.
A hearty mazal tov to all of this year's winners.
Ida Fink is truly extrairdinary. I remember reading one of her short stories in the New Yorker magazine several years ago…Might have been in 1998. I was really impressed with her writing, and the feeling she puts into everything. Of course, the story was in English translation. I believe her original language is Polish or Russian I think. I’m glad she’s still being recognized as a master in her genre.