Creator Bio
Abraham Shlonsky
1900–1973
One of the leading modern poets of Mandatory Palestine, Abraham Shlonsky was born in a Ukrainian village and sent to study at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv when he was thirteen. He was joined by his entire family in 1921. Shlonsky became a manual laborer, paving roads, working on construction sites, and eventually laboring on the land, helping to establish Kibbutz Ein Harod in the Jezreel Valley. He was associated with the group of younger poets who rebelled against the poetry of Bialik and his generation. His poetry is characterized by its linguistic inventiveness and its sophisticated wordplay. He was known for his many translations of world literature, especially the Russian classics, and for his children’s poetry and plays.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
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Late Adar
Like the golden bangles on the arms of a Bedouin woman, the hills of Gilboa bind their bracelets about the valley of Jezreel in the golden hours of late Adar evenings. Then do the women go down to…
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Toil
Dress me, good mother, in a glorious robe of many colours, and at dawn lead me to [my] toil.
My land is wrapped in light as in a prayer shawl. The houses stand forth like frontlets; and the roads…
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Three Old Women
In the grey evening, beside the white house, three old ladies sit, gazing straight ahead. And stillness all around. As if the eagle had suddenly frozen in flight. Three old ladies sit beside the…
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The Oath
By these eyes that have seen the woe and grief,
their outcries heaving to my heart’s embrace,
by this compassion which taught me: forgive
till the time did come too awful for grace—
I have taken this…