Born in Tel Aviv, Nira Harel is an author and editor of children’s books. In the 1960s she edited Pilon, a popular magazine for children, and later worked for the publishers Masada and Am Oved. She has earned the Zeev Award, the Fania Bergstein Prize, Germany’s Eselohr Award, and, in 1994, an Andersen Honor Citation.
This urn will be made of fired clay
Of native soil, from Poland, my country
In it are lodged the ashes of my parents
My brothers, daughter, and wife.
The urn will be simple, like a jug
With a small…
They present me with the bill
For not having been satisfied,
And they always surprise me with the wealth of their lexicon.
They ask me for a receipt for my fate,
And they make me think,
That…
I request my husband to dispose as follows:
I would wish to be able to give my family in Berlin the capital of 10,000 gulden held for me by my husband . . . my pearls, as my favorite pieces of…