The Spectacular Difference ─ Selected Poems of Zelda

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.

Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky--known to her Hebrew readers as Zelda--was born in Russia in 1914 and immigrated to Palestine in 1926. An Orthodox Jew descended from a line of prominent Hasidic rabbis, she emerged from the world of her fathers and mothers to become a best-selling author beloved by the diverse Israeli readership. Her six books garnered numerous literary awards, including the prestigious Bialik and Brenner Prizes. She died in Jerusalem in 1984.

Marcia Falk is the author of a groundbreaking Hebrew and English prayer book, The Book of Blessings; a widely acclaimed translatian of The Song of Songs; and other books of poetry and translations. Her translation of the Yiddish poetry of Malka Heifetz Tussman, With Teeth in the Earth is published by Wayne State University Press.