The second in an occasional series of post about books and writers yet to hit us in English .This is the epic novel by S Yizhar published in 1958 ,I first came across this after reading his novella Khirbet Khizeh that Granta published I reviewed it here .Days of ziklag it also set in the Israeli war of independence and covers six days of that war ,follows a squad of the defence force and is told in a stream of consciousness style of story telling ,and is based oon a real area of conflict in that war .Now the main reason for it not being translated is probably its size that is 1100 pages in its original Hebrew,this means it would be a bit longer in English as it uses more vowels than Hebrew in its written language .Another is the time to translate It took Peter Nadas Translator Imra Goldstein 5 years to translate Parallel stories a book of similar length and like Hebrew from a language not connect to English in its origins .It is considered the greatest book on this conflict and the best in modern Israeli fiction classic so why hasn’t a publisher taken the dive and translated it ? for more info on S Yizhar here is a link to his wiki page .If anyone knows if rights have been sold and a translation is forth coming I be very interested to know .
There is something in the pipeline. I can say no more.
thanks Henry ,all the best stu
You certainly find some obscure books! This one looks very interesting and no doubt provided some unique insights – but will we ever know other than through reviews. The length is definitely a disincentive for translators. An unusual series of blog posts!
I do but like highlighting books we should have as well in english this is one such ,all the best stu
Don’t hold your breath, but I’m seriously interested in translating this. It’s the ultimate challenge for a translator from Hebrew! NdeL
Hope you get chance some one should all the best stu
Any progress on ur translation of Yemé Ziklag?
It is still missing Stu & Amos Oz references the book in his 2016 novel “Judas”
“Shmuel sat facing Gresham Wald on the visitor’s chair, reading Yizhar’s Days of Ziklag, with which he had been wrestling intermittently all that winter…”
A pity it is not available as it appears a “classic”
Meant be translated by the two translators that did his other book a few years ago but not sure if they still doing it was few years ago I was told that Nicholas de Lange has said he’d love to translate it
I have started translating it together with Yaacob Dweck, with whom I translated Khirbet Khizeh. But it’s slow work and will take some years. If it turns out to be translatable at all. Fingers crossed!
Great news
Fantastic news, hope you find a publisher
UPDATE: I have finished a first draft (it took 10 years!) and am now hard at work revising and polishing it with Yaacob Dweck and Oliver Geffen. It is by far the most challenging text I have ever tried to translate.
Many thanks for the update so looking forward to this book
What worries me the most at this point is that, although I have enthusiastic publishers lined up in London and New York, they will be looking for a big subvention, and I have no idea who would fund a project like this. It is such a huge book.
Hope you get some funding are you able to say who is the uk publisher
I think it is premature to name the publishers. Suffice it to say they are both very prestigious houses. Everything will depend I guess on funding. If anyone has any ideas please don’t keep them to yourself!
PS We are thinking of setting up a website about the book and the translation…
That be great Nicholas if you do let me know
Me too. Would love to know more.
Crowdfunding?