Mordechai Geldman


Mordechai Geldman was an Israeli poet, non-fiction writer, artist, art critic and curator, and psychologist. His poems were translated into many languages, including the collection Years I Walked at Your Side published in 2018 by SUNY Press. He received awards including the Bialik Prize for his life achievements.

Biography

Geldman was born at a displaced persons camp in Munich to Polish parents who had survived the Holocaust. His family immigrated to Israel in 1949 and settled in Tel Aviv, where he lived ever since. He studied world literature and clinical psychology at Bar Ilan University. He was an independent psychotherapist using psychoanalytical methods.
Geldman published 18 poetry books, a book of short stories, and six non-fiction books. A two-volume collection from his poetry books was published in 2011. His last poetry book is the third volume, of works written until 2019. His poems were translated into many languages, including Chinese and Japanese. His book Becoming One was translated into Portuguese and published in Portugal in 2017. A large collection of his poems in English was published in 2018 by SUNY Press of the State University of New York, titled Years I Walked at Your Side in translations by Tsipi Keller.
Geldman's poetry is philosophical, psychological and existentialistic. It combines literary Hebrew and everyday language, even using some slang. His later poetry tends to be meditative and includes many haiku, influenced by Zen Buddhist aesthetics and philosophy. His poetry has many aspects, including lyrical, philosophical, sensual, erotic, religious and ironic. He was gay, and was one of the first Israeli poets to write explicit homo-erotic poetry in the 1970s.
He was a representative of poetry from Israel at international events such as the Biennale of Poetry in Liège, Belgium, in 1995, the Israeli Cultural Season in France in 1998, the Second Tokyo Poetry Festival in 2011, and the poetry festival in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2019.
Geldman's non-fiction books deal with subjects as the self in psychoanalytic theories and in Yoga and Buddhism, psychoanalytic interpretation of literature, such as doubles, and symmetries in Shakespeare's plays, and his favorite Israeli poets and artists.
As a visual artist, Geldman was engaged in plastic arts, ceramics and photography. His photographs were exhibited at such places as the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Geldman was an art critic of the Israeli daily Haaretz, and curated exhibitions for many Israeli artists.
Geldman died of cancer at age 75.
Zvika Nir, the chairman of the Writers' Association, summarised:

Awards

Publications

Geldman published works in many genres, including:

Poetry

Sea Time, Land Time Bird Window Songs 1966-1983 Milano Eye Book of Ask Time with art by Moshe GershuniMourning Songs with art by Pesach SlaboskyOh My Dear Wall The Heart's Poem Tamir's Poems, under the pseudonym Daniel KasifYears I Walked at Your Side, in 2 volumes. A wide collection from Geldman's poetry books and new poems. Becoming One Night Line
  • Years I Walked at your Side, 3rd volume. A collection from Geldman's poems written 2013–2019
  • Crescent on a Boat Teoria Do Um, in 2 volumes. Translated to Portuguese by Joao Paulo Esteves Da Silva. Portugal: Douda CorreriaYears I Walked at Your Side, a collection from Geldman's poetry. Translated to English by Tsipi Keller. Excelsior Editions, State University New York PressWine on Ice, English poems, Demer Press, 2021

Non-fiction

Dark Mirror Psychoanalytic Criticism Eating Fire, Drinking Fire The True Self and the Self of Truth In the Silver Mirror: Bianca Eshel Gershuny
  • ''Mirrors and Doubles: Shakespeare as a psychoanalyst''

Catalogues

Sharon Landscapes: Helen Berman Dad's Bird: Naomi Brickman
  • ''The Source of Light: Einan Cohen''

Prose

  • ''Neighbours and Other Perverts''