Poet Admiel Kosman’s second volume in English explores Jewish texts —Bible, Talmud, midrash — alongside bodies, physical desires, military experiences, even a refrigerator. Demons and fantasy enter these poems; so do politics, so does God. These are not religious poems in a conventionally liturgical, “inspirational” sense; yet they point to the big questions that religion asks: about love, hate, desire, violence, transgression, disappointment. Translator Lisa Katz’s introduction provides background information about Kosman, the translation process, and the poems themselves that brim with wonder, sadness, sensuality, and humor.

Poet and scholar Admiel Kosman is the author of nine books of Hebrew poetry, six academic books on Talmud and Midrash, and two bilingual Hebrew-English collections: So Many Things Are Yours (forthcoming, Zephyr Press, 2022) and Approaching You in English (Zephyr, 2011), both translated by Lisa Katz. Born in Haifa, Israel, he has lived in Berlin since 2003. He is Professor of Jewish Studies at Potsdam University, and academic director of the Abraham Geiger College, the first Reform rabbinical seminary to open in Continental Europe since the Holocaust.

Translator and poet Lisa Katz has published two collections of her own poems and translated several volumes of Hebrew poetry. Late Beauty, by Tuvia Ruebner, which she co-translated with Shahar Bram, was a finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Poetry. She also translated The Absolute Reader, a chapbook by Miri Ben Simhon (Toad Press, 2020); Approaching You in English, co-translated with Shlomit Naim-Naor (Zephyr, 2011); and Look There, by Agi Mishol (Graywolf, 2006). She lives in Jerusalem.