Israeli Poet Reflects on Childhood Dream and the Meaning of Libraries
תומצת מתוך Makor Rishon על ידי baba
Israeli poet Nurit Zarchi, an Israel Prize laureate, explores her lifelong passion for books and libraries, which began with a childhood dream of being a librarian. Her personal library reflects her family's history and her extensive interests in literature and psychology. She highlights key books on testimony, gardening, poetry, and the Holocaust, emphasizing the importance of memory and the "right to be verbal." Zarchi, who recently published a new book and received a lifetime achievement award, humorously imagines AI assisting her with her vast book collection.
הידיעה ב-6 שורות · תקציר של baba
- Poet Nurit Zarchi, an Israel Prize laureate, researches the significance of libraries in Hebrew literature.
- Her personal library is meticulously organized, with extensive collections in literature and psychology.
- She cherishes books related to the Holocaust, including a gift meant to preserve memory.
- Zarchi discusses influential books on testimony, gardening, poetry, and the importance of verbal expression.
- She recently published a new book and received a lifetime achievement award.
- Zarchi humorously anticipates AI helping her manage her extensive book collection in the future.
Poet and author Nurit Zarchi, an Israel Prize laureate, reflects on her lifelong connection to books and libraries, a passion that began with a childhood dream of becoming a librarian. Though that specific dream didn't materialize, Zarchi now researches the significance of libraries within Hebrew literature. She describes her personal library as a central element in her home, connecting different rooms and reflecting her family's journey. Her parents, who arrived in Israel after World War II without books, became avid readers who meticulously built their own collections.
Zarchi's personal library is meticulously organized, separating original Hebrew literature from translations, male authors from female authors, non-fiction from prose, and categorizing by subject. She maintains a children's and young adult section, primarily as a memento of her daughters' early years. Her most extensive collections are in literature and psychology. Despite a desire to curate her collection, she finds it difficult to part with books, managing to remove only one or two at a time.
A shelf in her study holds her own published works, including journals and anthologies, which she likens to a small foundation. Her poetry section, particularly cherished, features works by poets like Ravikovitch, Harkavi, Eliraz, Preil, and Yeshurun. She also has a dedicated section on the Holocaust, filled with books her father read intensely, seeking to understand the incomprehensible events. Among these are the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust and "My Hundred Children" by Lena Küchler-Silberman, a Bat Mitzvah gift intended to ensure she would be a faithful carrier of memory.
Zarchi highlights several significant books. She discusses "Testimony" by Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub, exploring trauma and testimony, and Karel Čapek's "The Gardener's Year," which illustrates how a garden cultivates its gardener. She also mentions Avraham Chalfi's poetry collection "Towards Stars and Dust," which captures conflicting desires, and Adrienne Rich's "Blood, Bread and Poetry," a gift from her daughters that affirms the "right to be verbal."
Zarchi, who recently received a lifetime achievement award from ACUM and whose new book "Like a Mountain" was published, humorously anticipates a future where artificial intelligence might assist her in retrieving books from her shelves.
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