LITERARY PIECES

INDIAN LITERARY
Both the “Mahabharata” and “Ramayana”—the two most famous works of
Indian literature and theater— are family epics, featuring cousins, uncles and
aunts “struggling and killing each other over land and dharma and then mourning
inconsolably." Many American dramas feature tough individuals.

MAHABHARATA
is an ancient Indian epic where the main story revolves around two
branches of a family - the Pandavas and Kauravas - who, in the
Kurukshetra War, battle for the throne of Hastinapura. Interwoven into this
narrative are several smaller stories about people dead or living, and
philosophical discourses.
Krishna-Dwaipayan Vyasa, himself a character in the epic, composed it; as,
according to tradition, he dictated the verses and Ganesha wrote them down. At
100,000 verses, it is the longest epic poem ever written, generally thought to
have been composed in the 4th century BCE or earlier. The events in the epic
play out in the Indian subcontinent and surrounding areas. It was first narrated by
a student of Vyasa at a snake-sacrifice of the great-grandson of one of the major
characters of the story. Including within it the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata
is one of the most important texts of ancient Indian, indeed world, literature.

A watercolur painting on cloth depicting Karna, leader of the Kauravas during the
Kurukshetra war as recounted in the epic Mahabharata.
Ramayana, (Sanskrit: “Rama’s Journey”) shorter of the two great epic poems of
India, the other being the Mahabharata (“Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty”). The
Ramayana was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before 300 bce, by the poet
Valmiki and in its present form consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven
books.

Rama, Sita, Hanuman, and Lakshmana

Rama and Sita (seated) with Hanuman (kneeling) and Lakshmana, 18th century,
India.
The poem describes the royal birth of the god Rama in the kingdom of Ayodhya
(Oudh), his tutelage under the sage Vishvamitra, and his success in bending Shiva’s
mighty bow at the bridegroom tournament of Sita, the daughter of King Janaka, thus
winning her for his wife. After Rama is banished from his position as heir to the
kingdom through a palace intrigue, he retreats to the forest with his wife and his
favourite half brother, Lakshmana, to spend 14 years in exile.
There Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka, carries off Sita to his capital while her two
protectors are busy pursuing a golden deer sent to the forest to mislead them. Sita
resolutely rejects Ravana’s attentions, and Rama and his brother set out to rescue her.
After numerous adventures, they enter into alliance with Sugriva, king of the
monkeys, and, with the assistance of the monkey-general Hanuman and Ravana’s own
brother, ,
HEBREW LITERARY PIECES

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz and translated by Nicholas de Lange

The book was first published in Hebrew back in 2002. It was translated into 28
languages and sold million copies worldwide. There was a Kurdish translation
found in bookstore in Northern Iraq in 2011.It’s an autobiographical novel of
the writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and survived its raging history.
The boy grows up in war-torn Jerusalem and surrounded with books in twelve
languages. His life changed completely when his mother committed suicide.
It’s a story that tells how the writer becomes a member of the political life of
his country
A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua and translated by Hillel Halkin

A 40-something woman is a victim of a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market.

The woman works at a bakery with an employer that has “gross negligence and
inhumanity toward an employee.” Apparently, the woman has no record of her
employment. The baker owner felt guilty that’s why he entrusts the task of
identifying and burying the victim to a human resources man. The man hesitated
to take the job, but as he learned more about the woman – she was an engineer
from the former Soviet Union, a non-Jew on a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem,
and, judging by an early photograph, beautiful – he felt regret, atonement, and
even love.