orna B Raz's Blog
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Jun.13.2013
This morning I called my brother to tell him about the Red Room detective story challenge and to ask which words came to his mind when he thought about Nero Wolfe. My brother said “I have all the books here if you'd like me to check?” I said “not really."
The truth is that I just wanted to hear my...
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Jun.12.2013
In "Gravitation" the poet brings forces of nature like thunder, lightning and the movement of the earth into the short human encounter. In the beginning there is promise which ultimately remains unfulfilled. In spite of those forces, and perhaps even because of them, the poem gives a...
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Jun.09.2013
Although I never talked to him again after that year, the author Yoram Kaniuk (1930-2013) was my hero. We met in my second year of university; he taught fiction in a creative writing workshop. Kaniuk was a well-known novelist in Israel, but not well respected. His style, in the...
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Jun.06.2013
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Reflecting upon Barbara Pym’s blindness (which I discuss in my previous post "I don't want to spoil the party") became an opportunity for self-examination; it made me revisit a period in my own life when I too was blind to what was going on around me.
After spending almost 14 years in the US where...
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Jun.02.2013
I have been debating whether her 100th birthday is an appropriate opportunity to discuss some unpleasant facts in Barbara Pym’s biography. But since Barbara Pym herself loves to expose different types of unpleasantness I decided that I might as well do it now.
I shall start with...
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May.29.2013
On June 2nd 1913 the British author Barbara Pym was born in Oswestry, Shropshire. When I came across Pym’s first novel Some Tame Gazelle which she started writing in her 20s, I never imagined that this hilarious book, together with the rest of her work, would become such an important part of my...
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May.25.2013
The Hebrew title for this poem translates to English as "impoverishment." I decided to choose "Lose All," since I felt that to start the poem with "If I am to be impoverished / then" doesn't work well in English. In addition, it seems to me that my choice of "lose all" enhances the dramatic...
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May.22.2013
The textbook which I use for teaching English Reading is full with short interesting passages. Their purpose is to whet the students’ appetite so they want to read more, and they always remind me of colorful bite-sized party food. One intriguing example is a passage about the Cargo...
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May.19.2013
This poem approaches the creative process in a visual and intimate way. The poem is about her work, she is alone which is necessary for her writing, but she the speaker uses both the "I" and the "you" in a masculine form. They are both involved in the creative process in which "you'...
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May.16.2013
My response to Red Room's challenge to blog about the best parenting advice:
Parents are forever giving needed and unneeded advice to their children: we always remember Polonius’ advice to Laertes:
"Give your thoughts to yourself,
And don’t act without thinking. . .
Listen to what every man...
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May.13.2013
In "Window" the passivity of the speaker is in contrast with the on- going, never ending, activity of nature. She seems to have no control of her life as she has no control over the world outside that window. In many Dahlia Ravikovitch's poems the stress is on the...
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May.11.2013
Her careful choice of words makes this poem relevant to all creative people who are on a constant search. It is quite surprising how "The Last Line" by Dahlia Ravikovitch could apply to the poet, novelist, composer and the painter.
Dahlia Ravikovitch from True Love
The...
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May.10.2013
Since Sunday is Mother's Day in the US; in Israel, alas, this day has already turned into "Family Day," I decided to use the opportunity to bring up a minor yet important point about motherhood and fiction.
Rereading Jane and Prudence (1953) Barbara Pym’s third novel, I was...
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May.08.2013
In time for Mother's Day a beautiful poem about motherhood.
Dahlia Ravikovitch from True Love
In Line For A Show
Translated by Orna Raz
Perhaps you and I won’t remember
how we stood in line together,
hand in hand.
And each time you talked to me
I heard nothing,...
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May.06.2013
I heard a beautiful quote on the radio the other day. One of our major novelists said that "writing is a way of correcting insults." I am not sure how he meant it exactly, but I can think of several options.
The first way is in fiction, where a real-life slight could turn...
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About orna
I teach English as a second language at the College of Management Academic Studies in Israel. My area of research is the cultural scene of 1950s Britain. I am also interested in literary translation and translate Modern Hebrew poems into English.
Connections
orna’s Favorite Books
The Glass of Blessings
Middlemarch
Private Papers
The Good Husband
Sense and Sensibility
The Chronicles of Barsetshire
When We were Orphans
Great Expectations...