The Dream of the Poem

Peter Cole presents his anthology, The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492, arguably the most powerful body of Jewish poetry written since the Bible. Fusing elements of East and West, Arabic and Hebrew, the particular and the universal, this verse embodies an extraordinary sensuality and intense faith that transcend the limits of language, place, and time. Cole will read from the anthology and also talk about the ways in which this often startling poetry relates to readers today.

Peter Cole is a poet and has a collection entitled What Is Doubled: Poems 1981-1998. He is also an award-winning translator from Hebrew and Arabic. He received the 2004 PEN-America Translation Award, and lives in Jerusalem, where he co-edits Ibis Editions.