Natan Zach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nathan Zach (1991)

Natan Zach (born December 13, 1930 in Berlin as Harry Seitelbach ; died November 6, 2020 near Tel Aviv ) was an Israeli poet and translator .

Life

Harry Seitelbach's father came from a wealthy German Jewish family, his mother was an Italian Catholic, they had to emigrate from Germany in 1936. The family ended up in Haifa , via France and Milan, in the British protectorate of Palestine , where the father soon died. Zach joined the Israeli Army in the Palestinian War in 1948 and served as an officer for two more years.

Zach met Ivrit . He spoke seven languages ​​and commented laconically: "Anyone who speaks seven languages ​​is not a genius, but a refugee." He studied in Jerusalem with Martin Buber , Ernst Simon and Hugo Bergmann at the Hebrew University and in 1952 became the head of the group of young writers " Likrat ”(towards), in which Jehuda Amichai , Gershon Shaked and Benjamin Harshav also worked. In 1955 he published his first collection of poems Shirim Rishonim ( First Songs ). In 1959, Zach called for a move away from the pathetic style of poetry in Israel that had been dominated by Nathan Alterman .

Between 1960 and 1967, Zach taught literature at various institutions in Tel Aviv and Haifa. With Emil Habibi he founded a Jewish-Arab poets group and in 1967 translated Arabic folk songs together with the Palestinian poet Rashid Hussein (1936–1977). Zach lived in England from 1968 to 1979 and was awarded a Ph.D. PhD from the University of Essex . Back in Israel he was appointed professor at the University of Haifa . In cultural life he was involved in the advisory boards of the Ohel Theater and the Cameri Theater .

With works by Else Lasker-Schüler , Paul Celan , Bertolt Brecht and Max Frisch , Zach translated modern German poetics and drama into Hebrew. He also translated Allen Ginsberg from English.

Zach's poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages. Many of his poems have been set to music and have thus entered everyday Israeli culture. In 2012, Chaya Czernowin set his text Rega echad, sheket bevakasha to choral music.

Honors

Works (selection)

  • Lost continent. Poems . From the Hebrew by Ehud Alexander Avner. Jewish publishing house in Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-633-54264-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Carsten Hueck: poet of his country. In: NZZ.ch . July 12, 2013, accessed November 6, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Nurit Buchweitz: Generation Shift in Israeli Poetry: From the Modernism of Zach to the Late Modernism of Wiezeltier. (pdf; 63 kB) Thesis submitted for the degree of “Doctor of Philosophy”. Tel-Aviv, September 2001, pp. VII, X , accessed November 6, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Ohel. In: Jewish Virtual Library . 2008, accessed on November 6, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Israeli poet Natan Zach is 85 years old. Catholic News Agency, December 11, 2015.
  5. ↑ Hilde Pach: Natan Zach. In: Poetry International Web. June 1, 2008, archived from the original on November 21, 2017 ; accessed on November 6, 2020 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Zach, Natan
SHORT DESCRIPTION Israeli poet and translator
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 2020
Place of death Tel Aviv