Mordechai Geldman was born in a displaced persons camp in Munich in 1946 to Polish parents who survived the Holocaust. His family immigrated to Israel in 1949 and settled in Tel Aviv, where he has lived ever since. Geldman has a BA in Comparative Literature, and an MA in Clinical Psychology; he works as a psychotherapist and began publishing poetry in 1966. As a visual artist Geldman is engaged in painting, ceramics and photography. He has served as an art critic for the Israeli daily Haaretz, and curated exhibitions for many Israeli artists. He has published 15 poetry books and six of non-fiction. A two-volume collection of his works was published in 2011 and his most recent, Becoming One, in May 2013.
Geldman’s work, according to American translators Warren Bargad and Stanley F. Chyet, “embraces many fields and cultures. His reach is perhaps not surprising for a psychoanalyst confronted professionally and temperamentally with the inner as well as outer manifestations of human experience. Readers come away with a impression of the poet as uomo universale, a genuinely Renaissance personality, conversant with Greek mythology, world and Jewish history, Chinese culture, the fine arts, flora and fauna, the expanses of literary imagination.”
Over the years Geldman has been awarded the Chomsky, Prime Minister’s, Brenner and Yehuda Amichai prizes for Israeli literature, as well as the Bialik Prize for his life’s work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
POETRY
In Hebrew
Sea Time, Land Time [Zman Ha-Yam Ve-Zeman Ha-Yabasha], Schocken, Tel Aviv, 1970
Bird [Tzipor], Siman Kriah, Tel Aviv, 1975
Window [Halon], Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 1980
1966 - 1983, Siman Kriah, Tel Aviv, 1983
Milano [Milano], Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 1988
Eye [Ayin], Siman Kriah, Tel Aviv, 1993
A Book of Ask [Sefer Sh`al], Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 1997
Time [Zman], a poem by M. Geldman and 9 etchings by Moshe Gershuni, Harel Printers and Publishers, Tel Aviv, 1997
Poems of Mourning [Shirei Ha-Evel]m with silkscreen prints by Pesach Slabosky, Harel Printers and Publishers, Tel Aviv, 2000
Poem of the Heart [Shir Ha-Lev], Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 2004
Tamir`s Poems [Shirei Tamir], (under pseudonym Daniel Kassif), Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 2007
For Years I Walked At Your Side [Halachti Shanim Le-Tzidcha], Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv & Bialik Institute, Jerusalem, 2011
Becoming One [Torat Hayihud], Keshev, Tel Aviv, 2013
In English
A dozen poems by Geldman appear in Poets on the Edge, An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry, ed. and tr.by Tsippi Keller, SUNY, Albany, 2008
Thirteen poems by Geldman are included in No Sign of Ceasfire, ed. and tr, by Warren Bargad and Stanley F. Chyet, Skirball/Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, 2002
In Portuguese
Teoria do um, translated by Joao Paulo Esteves da Silva, Douda Correria, Lisbon, 2015
NON-FICTION
In Hebrew
Dark Mirror [Mar`ah Afelah], Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 1995
Psychoanalytic Criticism [Sifrut Ve-Psichologia], Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 1998
The True Self and the Self of Truth: Psychoanalytic and Other Perspectives [Ha-Atzmi Ha-Amiti Ve-Atzmei-Haemet], Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 2006
In The Silver Mirror: Bianca Eshel Gershuni: Selected Works [Va Ihie Ba-Mar`et Ha-Kesef], Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Tel Aviv, 2007
LINKS
In English
Several new translations
In Hebrew
Wikipedia page for Mordechai Geldman
Ohio State University’s Lexicon of Contemporary Hebrew Literature
In Italian
Mordechai Geldman in Formavera
In Dutch
Performance of Geldman's poetry/video art by Sigalit Landau
Abbie de Quant - Waterspiegel
Sponsored by POETRY PLACE
