As far as I know, there isn’t an English translation
of Yehuda Amichai’s Big Night Book, Sepher
Halayla HaGadol. This work, written
by Israel’s greatest contemporary poet, chronicles seven nights in the life of
Emanuela, a small girl who is comforted through the terrors of the night by the
Night Queen.
This is a children’s book, so the Hebrew prose is
not overly difficult. Someone with an
intermediate skill in Israeli Hebrew can probably handle it with relative
ease. The text is pointed, and Amichai
mixes his prose with poems, making the reading varied. The illustrations are a bit washed out and without power, but have the sketch like consistency of a dream, which I suppose is the point.
Amichai is largely credited for taking the register
of Hebrew poetry and making it more pedestrian, more like the spoken language
of Israel. This children’s book cleverly
shows his mission. The prose is lucid,
simple, but coveys profound ideas about childhood hopes and dreams.
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