Meir Wieseltier (; March 8, 1941
Biography
Meir Wieseltier was born in
Moscow in 1941, shortly before the German invasion of Russia. He was taken to
Novosibirsk in southwestern
Siberia by his mother and two older sisters. His father was killed while serving in the Red Army in
Leningrad. After two years in Poland, Germany, and France, the family immigrated to Israel. Wieseltier grew up in
Netanya.
In 1955, he moved to Tel Aviv, where he has lived ever since. He published his first poems at the age of eighteen. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 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 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's tragedies, as well as novels by
Virginia Woolf,
Charles Dickens, E.M. Forster, and
Malcolm Lowry. 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.
[Butt, Aviva. "A Surge of Poetry: The 'Younger Poets' of the State of Israel Period", Poets from a War Torn World. SBPRA, 2012: 27-39 (33-7).] His voice is alternately anarchic and involved, angry and caring, trenchant and lyric.
Wieseltier was a poet in residence at the University of Haifa.
Awards
Among the many awards Wieseltier received are the following:
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In 1977 and 2011 Wieseltier was the co-recipient Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works
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In 1994, Wieseltier was the co-recipient (jointly with Hanoch Levin) of the Bialik Prize for literature.
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In 2000, he received the Israel Prize, for literature and poetry.
Published works
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Shirim Iti'im (Slow Poems), 2000
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Merudim Vesonatot (Merudim and Sonnets), 2009
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Perek Alef, Perek Beit (Chapter 1, Chapter 2), 1967
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Meah Shirim (100 Poems), 1969
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Kakh (Take It), 1973
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Davar Optimi, Asiyat Shirim (Something Optimistic, The Making of a Poem), 1976
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Pnim Vahutz (Interior and Exterior), 1977
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Motzah El Ha-Yam (Exit into the Sea), 1981
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Kitzur Shnot Hashishim (The Concise Sixties) 1984
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Ee Yevani (Greek Island) 1985
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Michtavim Veshirim Aherim (Letters and other poems) 1986
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Makhsan (Storehouse), 1994 Mahsan
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The Flower of Anarchy, 2003,
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Forty, 2010, (Arbaim)
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Davar Optimi, Asiyat Shirim (Something Optimistic, The Making of a Poem, a new edition + Appendix), 2012
See also
Further reading
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The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself, 2003,
External links
