Creator Bio
Natan Zach
1936–2020
Natan Zach (born Harry Seitelbach) was a poet, writer, editor, translator, and literary scholar. As a child, he moved to Palestine from Germany, settling in Haifa. Zach enlisted in the Israeli army at the age of seventeen and fought in Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. Zach was a leading figure in the Israeli literary scene in the first decades of the country’s independence and had a profound impact on Israeli poetry. His Kol he-ḥalav ve-ha-devash (All the Milk and Honey, 1966) is considered a modern classic. He also wrote children’s books and nonfiction. Zach was awarded the Israel Prize in 1995.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
One Moment
One moment of silence, please. If you please. I
would like to say something. He walked
right past me. I could have touched the hem
of his mantle. I did not touch it. Who could have
known what I did…
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Françoise
Greetings 53 year old Tristess, you must have guessed
back then, before youth and old men in fancy cars
turned their backs on you,
how all this would vanish, only Mitterand and the Citroën remain;
yo…
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Remembered and Forgotten
He turned walking on water into a kind of art. Rarely
getting himself wet. He left the ancient harbor at different hours of the day. At times
before sunrise. Sometimes he’d return minutes later…
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Are You
Are you Avraham’s, Yitzhak’s, Yaakov’s?
Are you my mother’s god?
What’s mine of all this?
What did I take by force of hand
and why am I alone
in a city meant to be my city
on account of a mother born…