The Fire Stays in Red

by Someck, Ronny; Dor, Moshe; Goldberg, Barbara

• ISBN13: 9780299179007
• ISBN10: 0299179001
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

"My mother dreams in Arabic, I dream in Hebrew," Ronny Someck has written. Born in Iraq and arriving in Israel as a young child, Someck's Sephardi roots still run deep. His poems are hot, crotic, comic, tragic, agape at the wonders of a tear and a tattoo and a snapshot and a bra and a scarecrow. To read his poetry is to ride a runaway horse. Where else can you find Tarzan, Marilyn Monroe and cowboys battling with Rabbi Yehuda Halevi for the hearts and souls of Israelis. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Ronny Someck has published eight books of poetry in Israel. He hosts his own popular radio show and travels like a troubadour of old all over Israel with a singer who has set many of his poems to music. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages Moshe Dor and Barbara Goldberg are award-winning poets and translators

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
1
Jasmine: Poem about Sand-Paper	3	(2)
7 Lines about the Wonder of the Yarkon	5	(2)
Hamasger Street. A Wedding Singer	7	(2)
Hawadja Bialik	9	(2)
The Temperature Is Gunpowder	11	(1)
Tattoo of an Eagle	12	(3)
Snapshot	15	(2)
In Response to the Question: When Did Your Peace Begin?	17	(1)
Poverty Line	17	(2)
Arab Labor	19	(2)
Niva	21	(2)
First Law of the Jungle. Poem for a Soldier Missing in Action	23	(2)
Poem of Longing	25	(2)
Solo Arak	27	(4)
Secret	31	(2)
Rice Paradise	33	(2)
Parachute Canopy	35	(2)
Strand of Hair	37	(2)
Baghdad, February 1991	39	(2)
Poem about Brenner with A.N.'s Shout in Parenthesis	41	(2)
On the Way to Arad	43	(2)
2
The Leopard and the Glass Slipper	45	(4)
Kiss	49	(2)
Retort of the Stuttering Boy	51	(2)
Embroidered Rag. A Poem About Umm Kulthum	53	(2)
Johnny	55	(2)
Drummer of the Revolution	57	(2)
30 Seconds to Storm the Tit	59	(2)
Virginity	61	(2)
Self-Portrait From the Commando	63	(2)
Pallor in the Face	65	(2)
Female Solider in the Desert. A Photo-Novel	67	(2)
Elegy for a Dead Horse in the Sabrah Refugee Camp	69	(2)
How to Tell the Age of a Horse: A Love Poem	71	(2)
Like a Cheetah. Nature Poem	73	(2)
Lion Milk	75	(2)
Solo	77	(2)
For Marilyn Monroe	79	(2)
Bloody Mary	81	(2)
Ars Poetica or the Difference between Basketball and Table Tennis	83	(2)
On the Way to Petra	85	(2)
Nine Lines about a Bedouin Dying of Desert Cancer	87	(2)
Punctures of History in the Valley of Yehoshafat	89	(4)
3
The First Kilometer	93	(2)
Sonnet of the Landscape's Sleeve	95	(2)
Movers	97	(2)
Scarecrow	99	(1)
The Dead Sea	99	(2)
From This Distance the Tombstones Look Like a Flock of Storks	101	(2)
Sonya Burstein's Apple Strudels	103	(2)
And Her Husband Blurted Out: Buchenwald	105	(2)
Girl and the Butchershop Window	107	(2)
Work	109	(2)
This is the Poem about the Girl Who Asked Me to Write a Poem about Her	111	(2)
Elegy About a Portion of Paradise	113	(4)
Sonnet of the Flaming Sword's Birth Chamber	117	(2)
Splinter	119	(2)
Punk Poem Beginning with Lines by Chekhov	121	(2)
The Fire Stays in Red	123	(2)
The Razor that Slashed the Metaphoric Face of Poetry	125	(2)
Red Catalogue of the Word Sunset	127	(2)
Notes	129	(2)
About the Author and Translators	131