Michal Snunit is a children’s author, poet, editor, and journalist. Born at Kibbutz En Haḥoresh, she now lives in Tel Aviv. In the 1960s, Snunit was the editor of a left-wing Zionist journal, Al hamishmar. Her Tsipor hanefesh (The Soul Bird) is among the most widely read Hebrew books. She received the 1993 International Award for Children’s Literature and the 2005 Prime Minister’s Prize for Literature.
More than once I began writing to you, and each time I took my pen in my hand I felt in my inner heart that in writing I will say nothing—to see you face to face, heart to heart, and to fall on each…
Awake, awake, O Zion!
Clothe yourself in splendor;
Put on your robes of majesty,
Jerusalem, holy city!
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
Shall never enter you again.
Arise, shake…
Work, tradesmen, shops, the town is there
with old maids polished down by emptiness
on haberdashers’ threshold where the antique sun
brushes off jewels dusty with being looked at.
Dressed up for…