Israel In Translation

"People of the Galilee are strong as the sunRough as the terebinth tender as the oakFiery as the fires of SodomSodden as the salt of the seaSo far from their bodies." Host Marcela Sulak reads some of the poetry of Israeli Druze poet Naim Araidi, who passed away on October 2 this year. Araidi was born in 1950 in the Druze Village of Maghar in the Galilee and received his PhD in Hebrew Literature from Bar-Ilan University. Like another Arab-Israeli writer, Anton Shammas, Araidi chose to write in Hebrew as well as Arabic. Among the legacies of Naim Araidi is the Nissan organization for Literature, which he established in 1999. The international Nissan Festival is held annually in April in Maghar, his native village. This village of Maghar is said to have the highest density of poets per capita — 17 in a population of 1,000. Texts:Back to the Village by Naim Araidi, translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Herzlia: Levant, 1994.“What Shall We Say to Whom,” translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut, Jerusalem Review, 5-6, 2006. 15