Posted on September 25, 2007 by Steve Pollak
Peter Cole, a Jerusalem-based translator, publisher and poet, is among the 24 MacArthur Fellowship winners announced earlier today.
According to the press release from the John T. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Cole’s “highly regarded translations of the poetry of Solomon Ibn Gabirol and Shmuel HaNagid, two of the great Hebrew poets of the Andalusian ‘Golden Age,’ offer readers a lyrical illustration of the extraordinary Arab-Jewish cultural partnership that flourished in tenth- through twelfth-century Spain. A poet himself, Cole’s translations infuse medieval verse with contemporary meaning while remaining faithful to the original text.”
The announcement goes on to say that the Israeli writer’s “dedication to the literature of the Levant offers a unique and inspiring vision of the cultural, religious, and linguistic interactions that were and are possible among the peoples of the Middle East.”
Readers of Jewish Literary Review may recall Cole’s name from a posting I wrote back in July titled, “He compared Jewish American culture to what?” The title of that posting actually referred to a line from Harold Bloom’s review of Cole’s newest book, “The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492
” As I said before, Bloom not only liked what he read but also stated, “Any reader who wonders, as I have throughout my life, what are the cultural prospects for American Jewry, will find an immense store of analogues in Cole's superb book.”
I still have not read the book but I’m tantalized by Bloom’s thoughts on the culture prospects for American Jewry.
In any event, mazal tov, Peter.