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That is the story of Israel Shamir's sudden appearance in the
English-language media. This leading Russian-Israeli intellectual,
writer, translator and journalist was well known to his Russian
readers, thanks to his books The Pine and the Olive and
Travels in Japan, and to his translations of Joyce, Homer and
Agnon into his native Russian. He did not write in English until
January 2001, when Israeli attacks on Palestinians forced him to
give up literature and turn to politics. His articles appeared on
the Internet, were placed on many sites and were reprinted by
numerous newspapers and magazines, and translated into many
languages. By using the Internet, Shamir proved that a word of
freedom can overcome any censorship.
A native of Novosibirsk, Siberia, a grandson of a
professor of mathematics and a descendant of a Rabbi from Tiberias,
Palestine, he studied at the prestigious School of the Academy of
Sciences, and read Math and Law at Novosibirsk University. In 1969,
he moved to Israel, served as paratrooper in the army and fought in
the 1973 war. After his military service he resumed his study of Law
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but abandoned the legal
profession in pursuit of a career as a journalist and writer. He got
his first taste of journalism with Israel Radio, and later went
freelance. His varied assignments included covering Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia in the last stages of the war in South East Asia. In
1975, Shamir joined the BBC and moved to London. In 1977-79 he wrote
for the Israeli daily Maariv and other papers from Japan.
While in Tokyo, he wrote Travels with My Son, his first book,
and translated a number of Japanese classics.
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After returning to Israel in 1980, Shamir wrote for the Israeli
daily newspaper Haaretz and the newspaper Al Hamishmar,
and worked in the Knesset as the spokesman for the Israel Socialist
Party (Mapam), but soon turned to more scholarly quests.
·
He translated and annotated the cryptic works of S.Y. Agnon, the only Hebrew Nobel Prize winning writer, from the original Hebrew into Russian. His work was published and reprinted many times in both Israel and in Russia. The Haaretz newspaper called this “the best translation of Agnon into any language”. His Commentary to Agnon opened the oblique world of Jewish tradition to non-Jewish readers, said the newspaper. Shamir’s reputation as a Judaic scholar was further enhanced when in 2006
his mammoth annotated translation of a medieval Hebrew classic
Sefer Yohassin (The Book of Lineage) was published by Zacuto Books. Shamir dealt also with modern Hebrew literature: his translation of an Israeli ultra-modernist Gabriel Moked’s book The Variations was published in St Petersburg. Another of his translations, the Israeli-Arab Wars by President Herzog, was published in London.
·
Jewish subjects were not the only theme of his broad interests. Shamir
translated selected chapters of Joyce's Ulysses, which were
published in Moscow, Tel Aviv, New York and Austin, Texas. They were
also included in the anthology of best Joyce translations by Moscow
Raduga publishers. Shamir also translated the Odyssey,
a second or third such endeavour in Russian literary history. Following an idea of Borges, Shamir attempted to translate the Odyssey as read by the eyes of Bloom, the hero of Ulysses. The
Odyssey and selected chapters of Ulysses in Shamir’s
translation were published in 2000 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
·
But Palestine, its sad history and enchanting landscape remained his most important subject. His views were summed up in The Pine and the Olive, the story of Palestine/Israel, published in 1988. Its cover carried a painting by the Ramallah painter, Nabil Anani. It was republished in a new updated version in 2004 by Ultraculture, Moscow, and became a cult book among the readers.
As
the first Palestinian Intifada began, Shamir had left Israel for
Russia, where he covered the eventful years 1989-1993. While in
Moscow, he reported for Haaretz, but was sacked for
publishing an article calling to the return the Palestinian refugees
and the rebuilding of their ruined villages. He wrote for various
Russian newspapers and magazines, including the daily Pravda
and the weekly Zavtra. His critical view of Gorbachev’s
perestroika was
published in Russian by the Communist Party and by Pravda
newspaper under the title Letters from Moscow. In 1993, he
returned to Israel and settled in Jaffa. He wrote for Russian
newspapers both in Israel and Russia and contributed to various
literary magazines.
The second Palestinian Intifada turned Shamir to his highly political and poetic pieces centred on Palestine. In the midst of the endless talk of a "Two State solution", Shamir, along with late Edward Said, has become a leading champion of the "One Man, One Vote, One State" solution in all of Palestine/Israel. As the battle for Palestine spilled over into Iraq, Shamir wrote more about the deeper, philosophical and theological meaning of the war. His essays have been circulating widely on the Internet and are posted on many prominent media sites. His English essays are collected in three books,
The Flowers of Galilee ,
Our Lady of Sorrow and the
PaRDeS They are also available in translations into Russian,
Arabic, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian
etc.
Shamir (59) lives in Jaffa, he is father of three sons.
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