Alterman, Natan

(1910–70)

   Israeli writer. Alterman was born in Warsaw, but his family moved to Moscow in 1914 and subsequently to Tel Aviv where Alterman received his secondary education. He then trained as an agricultural engineer in France, but returned to Palestine in 1934 where he worked as a journalist.

   Alterman is known for his translations of Shakespeare, Racine and Molière. He was also a poet and his popular work first appeared in his columns in the newspapers Ha’aretz and Davar and they frequently refer to topics of current concern. His published collections include Kokhavim Bahutz (‘Stars Outside’, 1938), Simhat’ Aniyim (‘Joy to the Poor’, 1941), Shirei Makot Mizrayim (‘Poems of the Plagues of Egypt’, 1944), Ir Hayona (‘Wailing City’, 1957) for which he won the Bialik Prize and Hagigat Hakayitz (‘Summer Festival’, 1965). Many of his poems are concerned with the recent history of the Jewish people, in particular the destruction of the Holocaust, the founding of the State of Israel and the return of the exiles from the Diaspora. In addition Alterman wrote five plays and set his translation of Samuel Gronemann’s Shlomo Hamelekh Veshalmai Hasandler (‘Solomon the King and the Cobbler’) to music. In total the complete edition of his work runs to sixteen volumes of original poetry and prose and thirteen volumes of translation. In 1968, two years before his death, he was awarded the Israel Prize for Literature.