The poet Ilana Shmueli was born in Czernowitz in 1914, and is perhaps best known in relationship to the poet Paul Celan, also from Czernowitz . There they met when they were young, taking a memorable walk together through an autumnal forest in 1942, quoting poetry to one another:

"Then we strode solemnly down the chestnut allee—and the chestnuts bloomed a second time—white candles against the improbably profound blue of the sky. Beautiful!"

Host Marcela Sulak reads extracts from Shmueli's memoir, translated from the German by Susan Gillespie. Shmueli moved to Palestine with her family in 1944, joined the army and took part in the war of independence. She married a doctor there in 1953, with whom she had a daughter. She met Paul Celan again in 1965 and they renewed their acquaintance until his death in 1970.
Text:Toward Babel: Poems and a Memoir by Ilana Shmueli. Trnaslated by Susan H. Gillespie. The Sheep Meadow Press, 2013.
Music:Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7 in C major, 3rd Movement (Adagio)Faran Ensemble - RainGevatron - Ani Nose Imi