Bread of Tears

Last November, Complutense University of Madrid held its 17th annual conference on translation. This year’s theme centered on the period between the two world wars (1918-1939), which were also the years that preceded the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The conference was organized by the university’s Institute for Modern Languages and Translation, a unique body that brings together lecturers and students from all fields of the humanities who are engaged in translation.

One of the prominent lecturers at the Institute is Raquel García Lozano, a professor of Hebrew Studies at Complutense and one of the most important translators from Hebrew to Spanish, who studies 20th century Hebrew literature. She has translated over 40 works of modern Hebrew literature, including the complete works of Amos Oz, and has edited various poetry collections.

The conference included a launch event for translations recently published by lecturers and students at the Institute, among them translations of Bialik’s poems by García Lozano. García Lozano’s translations of Bialik’s poetry mark a significant milestone in making Hebrew literature accessible to Spanish-speaking audiences. The collection, which she translated, edited, and accompanied with an afterword, is an impressive bilingual edition. The selection includes 26 poems, opening with “To the Bird” and concluding with “In the City of Slaughter.” In her illuminating afterword, García Lozano explains:

“In one of his poems, Bialik wonders about the source of his poetry and conjures the figure of a mother kneading bread, while ‘tears fall from her eyes into the dough,’ and later distributing this ‘bread of tears’ to her children. […] Ever since, the poet would pour out words that would seep like burning tar into the bones of those who would drink them and of those who would open the pages of this book, this ‘bread of tears.’”

Indeed, the title of the collection is “Pan de lágrimas” (Bread of Tears), after this recurring image in Bialik’s poetry. The tears form a connecting thread between many of the poems, yet the appearance of this collection is undoubtedly a cause for celebration: Spanish-speaking readers are introduced to a representative selection from the work of this great Hebrew poet, in an edition presenting both the Hebrew original and a precise, sensitive translation, alongside the cultural and historical context essential to understanding the poems.

At a time when cultural bridges are more necessary than ever, this translation offers a meaningful link between two rich literary traditions.