Made another recording in a reconstruction of medieval Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation. This reading includes the same psalm read twice, once in a normal albeit very slow speaking voice, and again with "Shaami" cantillation.
In which I read Hamlet's famous "To Be or Not To Be" Soliloquy in a reconstruction of Early Modern English pronunciation. Actual speech starts at 0:33
Note that the "ache" of "heartache" is pronounced like the name of the letter H. Despite the folio spelling with <k> here, many speakers at the time seem to have preserved a contrast between the noun "ache" with /tʃ/ and the verb "ache" with /k/.
My translation of the opening of Bialik's pogrom poem "In Slaughter City".
Unlike others, my translation draws both on the Hebrew and Bialik's Yiddish self-translation, depending on what I thought could work in English in any given case (E.g. the first 2 lines are only in the Yiddish).
I don't know if I have the discipline to do the whole thing which is 272 lines in Hebrew.
But it's an interesting experience, letting two coordinate versions inform a translation.
Another reading from Shakespeare in Early Modern pronunciation. This time a bit from the finale of Richard III, when Richmond addresses his troops. (Actual text begins at 0:27, Richmond's speech at 1:20)
I gave Richmond innovative mid-vowels, & a monophthongal reflex of ME /au/, but a conservative retention of the fricative (with no diphthongization) in words like "night".
In which I read Nathan Alterman's poem "Moon" in Hebrew and then in my English translation
"Even an old landscape has a moment of its birth.
The strange, impregnable
And birdless skies.
Under your window, moonlit on the earth,
Your city bathes in cricket-cries...."
Having an AI art generator visualize the poems I translate has been in interesting and, now, very useful experiment.
The image feedback I got from earlier drafts of this translation of a poem by Nathan Alterman actually influenced my translation choices for the better. Weird as that may seem.
In which I read one of my favorite Hebrew sonnets in Hebrew and in English.
And yeah, I read it the way I normally read Hebrew texts like this. For some reason, formal texts like this (with pronoun clitics marking not only possession but even verbal objects) especially trigger the careful pronunciation of Hebrew I was first taught with /ħ ʕ r/. It was all I could do not to actually pronounce all the geminates as such.
In which I read Natan Alterman's "Summer Night" in my English translation, and then in the original Hebrew
"Silence whistles in wide open spaces.
Glitter of a knife in cats' eyes glows.
Night. So much night! And stillness in the sky.
Stars in swaddling clothes...."