Robert Friend (; November 25, 1913 – January 12, 1998) was an American-born poet and translator. After moving to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, he became a professor of English literature 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. ...

Biography

Friend was born in 1913 in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. He was the eldest of five children. After studying at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, he taught English literature and writing in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Panama, France, England, and Germany. He settled in Israel in 1950, where he lived the rest of his life. He taught English and American Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for over thirty years. He was well known in Israel as an English-language poet and a translator of Hebrew poetry. Robert Friend was

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

, and his sexuality found expression in his poetry well before the Stonewall era. According to Edward Field in the ''Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poetry'', ''Shadow on the Sun'' is "remarkable in that, for its time, it contains so many poems about the author's homosexuality." Friend's openness continued throughout his writing career.

Literary career

Friend's first published volume of verse was ''Shadow on the Sun'' (1941). His last collection of poetry, ''Dancing with a Tiger: Poems 1941-1998'', was published posthumously in 2003. He translated around 800 works from Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish, French, German, and Arabic. Toby Press published two volumes of his translations in its Hebrew Classics Series: ''Found in Translation: Modern Hebrew Poets'', A Bilingual Edition (2006, Second Revised Edition) and ''Ra'hel: Flowers of Perhaps'' (2008, Second Revised Edition). Among the Hebrew poets Friend translated into English are

Chaim Nachman Bialik Hayim Nahman Bialik (; January 9, 1873 – July 4, 1934) was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew and Yiddish. Bialik is considered a pioneer of modern Hebrew poetry, part of the vanguard of Jewish thinkers who gave voice to a new spirit ...

Rachel Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older siste ...

Natan Alterman Nathan Alterman (; August 14, 1910 – March 28, 1970) was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator. Though never holding any elected office, Alterman was highly influential in Labor Zionist politics, both before and after the es ...

Leah Goldberg Leah Goldberg or Lea Goldberg (; May 29, 1911, Königsberg – January 15, 1970, Jerusalem) was a prolific Hebrew-language poet, author, playwright, literary translator, illustrater and painter, and comparative literary researcher. Her wri ...

, Gabriel Preil and

Yehuda Amichai Yehuda Amichai (; born Ludwig Pfeuffer 3 May 1924 – 22 September 2000) was an Israelis, Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew language, Hebrew in modern times. Yehuda Amichai, the poet of everyday life, love, ...

Awards and recognition

Friend won the Jeannette Sewell Davis Prize (Poetry, Chicago).''Found in Translation: A Hundred Years of Modern Hebrew Poetry'' (First Edition, Menard Press) is a Poetry Book Society (UK) Recommended Translation

Poetry

* ''Dancing with a Tiger: Poems 1941-1998,'' Edited by Edward Field, Preface by Gabriel Levin (Menard Press, London, 2003, ) * ''After Catullus'' (The Beth-Shalom Press, Israel, 1997) * ''The Next Room'' (The Menard Press, London, 1995) * ''Abbreviations'' (Etcetera Editions, Israel, 1994) * ''Dancing With A Tiger'' (The Beth-Shalom Press, Israel, 1990) * ''Somewhere Lower Down'' (The Menard Press, London, 1980) * ''Selected Poems'' (Tambimuttu at The Seahorse Press, London, 1976) * ''The Practice of Absence'' (Beth-Shalom Press, Israel, 1971) * ''Salt Gifts'' (The Charioteer Press, Washington, DC, 1964) * ''Shadow on the Sun'' (

The Press of James A. Decker The Press of James A. Decker was a poetry publishing house once located in the tiny hamlet of Prairie City, Illinois. Created in 1937 by James A. Decker, the press carried the full name of its founder until 1948 when the imprint was shortened to si ...

, Prairie City, Illinois, 1941)

Translations

* ''Flowers of Perhaps: Selected Poems of Ra'hel'', A Bilingual Edition (The Toby Press, 2008) * ''Found in Translation: 20 Hebrew Poets:'' A Bilingual Edition, Edited and Introduced by Gabriel Levin (The Toby Press, 2006) * ''Found in Translation: 100 Years of Modern Hebrew Poetry'', Edited and Introduced by Gabriel Levin, Menard Press, 1999 (Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation) * S.Y. Agnon: ''The Book Of The Alphabet'' (The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1998) * Featured Translator, "Palestinian and Israeli Poets," ''Modern Poetry in Translation'', No. 14, Winter 1998-99, Edited by Daniel Weissbort * ''Flowers of Perhaps: Selected Poems of Ra'hel'' (Menard Press, London, 1995) * Featured Translator, "Second International Poets Festival, Jerusalem," ''Modern Poetry in Translation,'' No. 4, Winter 1993-94, Edited by Daniel Weissbort * ''Leah Goldberg: Selected Poems'' (Menard Press, Panjandrum Press, 1976) * ''Gabriel Preil: Sunset Possibilities and Other Poems'' (The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1985) * ''Natan Alterman: Selected Poems'' (Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House, Israel, 1978) * Translation of poem by Natan Alterman in "Mother's Lament", composed by Sharon Farber, performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, September 2002 * Translation of poem by Ra'hel in "Women of Valor", composed by Andrea Clearfield

Seminars

* Poetry reading and discussion. "Three Maverick Poets: An Unflinching Exploration of the Lives and Works of Robert Friend, '34, Chester Kallman, '41, and Harold Norse, '38." Discussion leaders: Edward Field, Edward Mendelson, and Regina Weinrich. Sponsored by Brooklyn College, New York, October 27, 2005.

Radio

* Three poems recited by Garrison Keillor in "The Writer's Almanac," January 2003 and January 2004 * "Dreamstreets" program, moderated by Steven Leech, devoted to the poetry of Robert Friend, February 2004 (University of Delaware at Newark)

References

Copyright

* Robert Friend's copyrights are held by his niece Jean Shapiro Cantu. His Archives are located at The Brooklyn College Library, Department of Special Collections, and the University of Delaware Library, Department of Special Collections. {{DEFAULTSORT:Friend, Robert 1913 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American poets 20th-century American translators Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem American emigrants to Israel American gay writers American LGBTQ poets American male poets American people of Russian-Jewish descent Brooklyn College alumni Gay Jews Gay poets Harvard University alumni Israeli gay writers Israeli LGBTQ poets Israeli translators Jewish American poets Writers from Brooklyn