Meir Wieseltier (; March 8, 1941 – March 30, 2023) was an Israeli poet and translator. Wieseltier was awarded the 2000

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

Biography

Meir Wieseltier was born in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

in 1941, shortly before the German invasion of Russia. He was taken to

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

in southwestern

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

by his mother and two older sisters. His father was killed while serving in the Red Army in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. After two years in Poland, Germany, and France, the family immigrated to Israel. Wieseltier grew up in

Netanya Netanya () () or Natanya (), is a city in the "Planet Bekasi" Central District (Israel), Setanyahu of Israel, Israel BAB ih, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between the Poleg stre ...

. In 1955, he moved to

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, where he has lived ever since. He published his first poems at the age of eighteen. He studied at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. In the early 1960s, he joined a group known as the Tel Aviv Poets. He was co-founder and co-editor of the literary magazine ''Siman Kriya'', and a poetry editor for the

Am Oved Am Oved ("A Working People") is an Israeli publishing house. History Am Oved was founded in 1942 by Berl Katznelson, who was its first editor in chief. It was created as an organ of the Histadrut, Israel's federation of Labor, with a goal of publ ...

publishing house.Meir Wieseltier profile
PoetryInternationalweb.org. Accessed September 12, 2022

Literary career

Wieseltier published 13 volumes of verse. He translated English, French, and Russian poetry into Hebrew. His translations include four of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's tragedies, as well as novels by

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

E.M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910) and '' A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous shor ...

, and

Malcolm Lowry Clarence Malcolm Lowry (; 28 July 1909 – 26 June 1957) was an English poet and novelist who is best known for his 1947 novel ''Under the Volcano'', which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list.

. Wieseltier often wrote in the first person, assuming the role of a moralist searching for values in the midst of chaos. He penned powerful poems of social and political protest in Israel. His voice is alternately anarchic and involved, angry and caring, trenchant and lyric. Wieseltier was a poet in residence at the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

Awards

Among the many awards Wieseltier received are the following: * In 1977 and 2011 Wieseltier was the co-recipient

Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

* In 1994, Wieseltier was the co-recipient (jointly with

Hanoch Levin Hanoch Levin (; December 18, 1943 – August 18, 1999) was an Israeli dramatist, theater director, author and poet, best known for his plays. His absurdist style is often compared to the work of Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett. Biography Lev ...

) of the

Bialik Prize The Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel, for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Israel's national poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate p ...

for

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. *In 2000, he received the

, for literature and poetry.

Published works

* Shirim Iti'im (Slow Poems), 2000 * Merudim Vesonatot (Merudim and Sonnets), 2009 * Perek Alef, Perek Beit (Chapter 1, Chapter 2), 1967 * Meah Shirim (100 Poems), 1969 * Kakh (Take It), 1973 * Davar Optimi, Asiyat Shirim (Something Optimistic, The Making of a Poem), 1976 * Pnim Vahutz (Interior and Exterior), 1977 * Motzah El Ha-Yam (Exit into the Sea), 1981 * Kitzur Shnot Hashishim (The Concise Sixties) 1984 * Ee Yevani (Greek Island) 1985 * Michtavim Veshirim Aherim (Letters and other poems) 1986 * Makhsan (Storehouse), 1994 ahsan* The Flower of Anarchy, 2003, * Forty, 2010, (Arbaim) * Davar Optimi, Asiyat Shirim (Something Optimistic, The Making of a Poem, a new edition + Appendix), 2012

References

External links

Biography on the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature

God and Man in the Poetry of Meir Wieseltier
Speech on the occasion of Wieseltier's visit to

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

, Stanley Nash
The Flag Parade
A poem by Wieseltier published in English by

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

Of Rebels, Wretches, Mongols and Kreplach
a tribute to Meir Wieseltier, Natan Zach,

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

* Poem on Jerusalem
אם לא תהיה ירושלים - שיר מפורסם מאת מאיר ויזלטיר בעברית ובתרגום לאנגלית, וגם הראיון הראשון עימו
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wieseltier, Meir 1941 births 2023 deaths Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent Soviet emigrants to Israel Jewish Israeli writers 20th-century Israeli poets Israel Prize in literature recipients Israel Prize in Hebrew poetry recipients Academic staff of the University of Haifa Israeli translators English–Hebrew translators 20th-century Israeli translators 21st-century Israeli poets Israeli male poets 20th-century Israeli male writers 21st-century Israeli male writers Recipients of Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works Writers from Moscow Bialik Prize recipients