Late Adar

Abraham Shlonsky

1921

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 the spring to draw water, and the anemones are like bangles around their feet.
Please lower your jar, now, so that we may drink the cool flowing waters…
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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.

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