6. Meir Park (1934) By Natan Alterman

If we deserve it and swift time Doesn’t suddenly tell us: Stop! We’ll yet stroll, my friend, Along the paths of Meir’s park, Leaning on sticks, at eventide. We’ll walk between green trees Agitating the sparrows. Our beards will be long, And oh! our bones will speak. Oh! Our bones will speak, my brother And tell of groaning old age Where, despite sadness and weeping, There is also contentment. The trees overhead will sway Illuminated with the glow of twilight. We knew them when they were still saplings Now they reach the skies. We knew them when they were merely a proposal In a hotly debated budget discussion. We knew them when they were no more than a speech, A lecture about the development program… Look at them now, in the glory of their stature Surrounding us with noise and trembling. The years that elevated them Are the same years that bowed us down. So let us sit, my rusty friend, On a crumbling bench, as old as we. While a lively bird from the Lod district Hops and chirps at our feet. It was an abstract wish Now bursting into reality… It was one item on the agenda That has definitely been fulfilled.

Biography: Natan (Nathan) Alterman (1910-1970) was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator. He is considered one of 's most outstanding and influential writers of the 20th century.

Born in , , Alterman moved with his family to Tel Aviv in 1925. He studied agronomy for three years in France, and worked as a translator for Hebrew

(Natan Alterman, continued, page 2) newspapers. His first poems were published in 1931 and his first book, Stars Outside, in 1938.

Alterman was a regular contributor of political verse to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, and later to the Labor daily, . A poetic spokesman for the national struggle, many of his poems were banned by the British Mandate authorities and were passed from hand to hand by an eager public. Alterman also wrote lyrics to several songs that became overnight hits. Much of his lyric and philosophical poetry saw print between 1937-57; many poems deal with love and the experience of city living.

In 1942, when the first news about reached the Zionist Jewish community in British Mandate Palestine, Alterman wrote a poem, which can be described as a sarcastic paraphrase on the Jewish prayer, "Praised are You ... who has chosen us out of all the nations". He wrote: "At our children's cry, shadowed by scaffolds, we heard not the world's furor. For you have chosen us out of all nations..."

After 1948, social and political themes dominated Alterman's public verse. Though never holding elected office, Alterman was highly influential in Socialist Zionist politics, both before and after the establishment of the State of Israel. In 1945–1947, Alterman's weekly column in the Labour Movement "Davar" newspaper denounced the British army's oppressive measures and praised the illegal immigrant boats bringing Jewish to the country's shores. In the early stages of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War he wrote numerous patriotic poems. The best known of these is "The Silver Platter," honoring the ultimate sacrifice so many young Israelis made for the survival of the new state. This poem became a canonical text that is read on Israel's Remembrance Day

Natan Alterman was talented at writing about current events with a dry yet biting humor. His poetry is endowed with style, with rich and picturesque language, neologisms, and daringly original rhyme and meter. A prolific lyricist, playwright and essayist, he also translated many works into Hebrew and , including Shakespeare, Moliere, and Russian classics. He also wrote poetry and plays for children. Alterman received both the Israel Prize and the . His poems have been translated into twenty languages.

(Sources: Israel Poetry International Web, and Wikipedia)