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Meir Wieseltier
Meir Wieseltier
	Meir Wiseltier at Beit Ariela, 2021
Born	March 8, 1941; Moscow, Soviet Union
Died	March 30, 2023 (aged 82); Ramat Gan, Israel
Occupation	poet, translator, journalist
Language	Hebrew
Nationality	Israeli (since 1949)

Meir Wieseltier (Hebrew: מאיר ויזלטיר; March 8, 1941^[1] – March 30, 2023)^[2] was an Israeli poet and translator. Wieseltier was awarded the 2000 Israel Prize.

Biography

Meir Wieseltier was born in Moscow in 1941, shortly before the German invasion of Russia. He was taken to Novosibirsk in southwestern Siberia by his mother and two older sisters. His father was killed while serving in the Red Army in Leningrad. After two years in Poland, Germany, and France, the family immigrated to Israel. Wieseltier grew up in Netanya.

In 1955, he moved to Tel Aviv, where he has lived ever since. He published his first poems at the age of eighteen. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In the early 1960s, he joined a group known as the Tel Aviv Poets. He was co-founder and co-editor of the literary magazine Siman Kriya, and a poetry editor for the Am Oved publishing house.^[3]

Literary career

Wieseltier published 13 volumes of verse. He translated English, French, and Russian poetry into Hebrew. His translations include four of Shakespeare's tragedies, as well as novels by Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, E.M. Forster, and Malcolm Lowry. Wieseltier often wrote in the first person, assuming the role of a moralist searching for values in the midst of chaos. He penned powerful poems of social and political protest in Israel.^[4] His voice is alternately anarchic and involved, angry and caring, trenchant and lyric.^[3]

Wieseltier was a poet in residence at the University of Haifa.^[3]

Awards

Among the many awards Wieseltier received are the following:

In 1977 and 2011 Wieseltier was the co-recipient Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works
In 1994, Wieseltier was the co-recipient (jointly with Hanoch Levin) of the Bialik Prize for literature.^[5]
In 2000, he received the Israel Prize, for literature and poetry.^[6]^[7]

Published works

Shirim Iti'im (Slow Poems), 2000
Merudim Vesonatot (Merudim and Sonnets), 2009
Perek Alef, Perek Beit (Chapter 1, Chapter 2), 1967
Meah Shirim (100 Poems), 1969
Kakh (Take It), 1973
Davar Optimi, Asiyat Shirim (Something Optimistic, The Making of a Poem), 1976
Pnim Vahutz (Interior and Exterior), 1977
Motzah El Ha-Yam (Exit into the Sea), 1981
Kitzur Shnot Hashishim (The Concise Sixties) 1984
Ee Yevani (Greek Island) 1985
Michtavim Veshirim Aherim (Letters and other poems) 1986
Makhsan (Storehouse), 1994 [Mahsan]
The Flower of Anarchy, 2003, ISBN 978-0-520-23552-6
Forty, 2010, (Arbaim)
Davar Optimi, Asiyat Shirim (Something Optimistic, The Making of a Poem, a new edition + Appendix), 2012