of life and death. Shlonsky is also considered among the finest Hebrew children's poets, for books such as Mickey Who? and Me and Tali in Lhama Country. The play Utzli-Gutzli, about the dwarf Rumpelstiltskin of German legend, became a classic among Hebrew children's plays. In Shlonsky's translation for the stage, all of the monologues and dialogues are spoken in rhyme. They incorporate sophisticated wordplay using the Hebrew language at a high level. The following example from Utzli-Gutzli is presented with a transliteration, placing accents on stressed syllables. An unauthorized translation follows. Every city, province, town, learn the first rule: pay the crown! Tax and tariff, fee and fare, not a pocket shall you spare! In the translation of foreign-language works, Shlonsky's uniqueness is evident. The characteristic Shlonskian style is recognizable from the very first lines of each work and continues to be greatly admired by writers and readers of Hebrew literature. Shlonsky translated many of the world's best known classics: William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Romain Rolland, and others. In his distinguished translation of Hamlet, which a score of Hebrew translators had already tackled, Shlonsky's distinctive language is again evident. He translated Shakespeare from Russian, as he was not a master of English. Yet translating at second hand did not mar the quality of his result. When Hamlet tells his mother Gertrude not to sleep with his uncle Claudius, who murdered his father, Shlonsky uses the consonance min`i dodayikh midodi: "withhold your love from my uncle", where the unusual word dodayikh (your love) evokes the Song of Solomon. The conventional translation is al ta`ali al yetzu`ei dodi (do not go upon my uncle's couch). Individual poems "Toil" (1928) Selected puns attributed When some firm-breasted young women passed by, he let slip, "Here's the latest, leading with the top story" (in literal translation, here's the news / new women, chief part foremost). On the Matate Theater: "the bit of tea (me`at ha-te) left over from the kettle" (kumkum, the name of the previous theater). To a lass who wanted to present him with a flower (perach): "I'll gladly accept your soft mouth (pe rakh)!" When she tried to explain that she meant -rach with a chet (the letter of the Hebrew alphabet), he replied "I'll take the sin (the word chet) upon myself!" (an allusion to Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene 5). Selected coinages attributed derekh-agav (intentional misspelling of