My Michael [antikvár]

TRANSLATOR*S NOTE THE translator's task is not simply impossible, it is also extremely difficult, and especially so in a book, such as My Michael, whose essence consists, to a large extent, in the texture of the language. A further complication is that Israëli Hebrew naturally reflects the varied linguistic backgrounds of the people who speak it, and the reader may amuse himself by spotting among the charac-ters in this book examples of almost all the national and linguistic groups who go to make up the population of Israël. Among the older generation Polish and Yiddish predominate; Hannah's mother speaks both these but is more at home in Russian and speaks Hebrew with difficulty; then there are Germans, Arabs, Persians, Yemenites and even Bokharians. Each of the characters, including native Hebrew-speakers like Michael and Hannah and their contemporaries, speaks his own distinctive brand of Hebrew; I have done my best to convey this variety in the translation, but I should like to draw attention to it here be-cause it is an integral feature of the book, which might confuse or elude a reader who has never experienced it. The Israëli background is unfamiliar, but not, I hope, un-intelligible. The calendar is, of course, the Jewish calendar, dominated by the Sabbath, which begins and ends at sunset. As for the urbah landscape of Jerusalem, which is so prominent in the story, and the interplay of the various factions of the population, Jews and Arabs, Europeans and Orientals, religious and 'enlightened' Jews, I cannot hope to add anything to Hannah's own vivid and penetrating commentary. A few specific points which may be helpful or interesting: It was pointed out by Israëli critics that Michael's surname, Gonen, means 'protector', and it is only fair to offer this information, for what it is worth, to the English reader. I have kept several non-Hebrew words and phrases in their original languages; where they are not self-explanatory I have occasionally inserted the translation. ('Cholera, on p. 198, is not a diagnosis, but a common Polish curse.) One or two of the names have affection-