The Spectacular Difference: Selected Poems

by Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky, Marcia Falk

From 1967, which marked the publication of her first book of poems, until her death in 1984, the modest and soft-spoken woman known to her Hebrew readers simply as Zelda received an extraordinary amount of public attention. Her six books of verse were honored by Israel's most prestigious literary awards and have remained bestsellers beyond the poet's lifetime. Marcia Falk, a well-known poet in her own right, was a good friend of Zelda's and a frequent visitor to her Jerusalem home. Fulfilling a promise she made long ago to her friend, Falk presents here the first major compilation of Zelda's poetry in English translation.

A devoutly religious Jew descended from the line of prominent Hasidic rabbis, Zelda Schneaurson Mishkovsky inhabited the world of ultra-Orthodoxy her entire life. Her utterly unique poetry, which draws abundantly from classical Jewish texts, portrays at the same time a world of personal mystical imagery-the "strange plant," "enchanted bird," "black rose," "golden butterfly." Marcia Falk's sensitive translations, lucid introduction, and comprehensive notes to the poems reveal the power of Zelda's poetry to create out of primitive inner experience strikingly original pictures that reach beyond the borders of tradition to redeem pain and celebrate life.

Genres: Poetry, Jewish

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky (Hebrew: זלדה שניאורסון-מישקובסקי), widely known as Zelda (Hebrew: זלדה), was an Israeli poet.

Zelda Schneurson (later Mishkovsky) was born in Chernigov, Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire (now Chernihiv, Ukraine), the daughter of Sholom Schneerson and Rachel Hen. Her father was the great-great grandson of the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn. The family settled in Jerusalem in 1926. Her mother, Rachel Hen, was a daughter of Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Chein of Chernigov and a descendant of the Sephardic dynasty of Hen-Gracian, which traces its roots to 11th century Barcelona.

Zelda attended a religious school for girls in British Palestine, and then studied at the Teachers' College of the Mizrachi movement. After graduating in 1932, she moved to Tel Aviv and then to Haifa, where she taught until her return to Jerusalem in 1935. In Jerusalem, she also worked as a schoolteacher. In 1950 she married Hayim Mishkovsky and from then on devoted herself to writing. One of her students was Amos Klausner, later the novelist Amos Oz, who writes in his memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness that he had a schoolboy crush on her. Years after graduation, he visited her at home (she was still living at the same address) and was deeply touched that she still remembered how he liked her lemonade.

Reviews

[Donald Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular collection of poems....

First I have to give kudos to Marcia Falk for this translation of Zelda's poems. Having studied Hebrew I can appreciate the daunting task and the pressure to capture the excellency of these poems.
This collection is one that can not help but cause the reader to look at the world around us with different eyes. Zelda Mishkovsky survived a lot during her lifetime and these poems reflect her passion for nature and things that we can control and those we have to accept. Her style, as many have said, is unique in her combining words we don't usually see together. These are poems meant to be read several times and with each reading a new insight will bless the reader.
This must get five stars.

[Perlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zelda's poetry is authentic, deeply religious and deeply honest. There are few like her. In tone and feel, her poems are somewhat like Donne's Holy Sonnets. She confronts that space between faith and emotion. I wish there were more volumes of her work available in the U.S. She's one of a kind, and a master.

[Bear Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivatingly ethereal and magical, this is a woman with a great sorrow tempered by an even greater love, expressed through a deep faith and intelligence.