Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

Since I am writing this in the morning, I am imagining what would have made it perfect. So, considering the pleasant December sun rays, the street noise and the fact that I have several hours before my daughter returns from school, I think it would be nice to re-read Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway in the new Hebrew translation. In this morning, sunny and warm, Mrs. Dalloway would have definitely carried her soul to lunchtime with rational mellowness, peppered with distant memories of loss, and sharpening the read with the conjunction of the concrete and the associative. This way, one could definitely think about life and its losses without pain.

Twelve Fantasias for Flute Solo by Georg Philipp Telemann.

For a sunny autumn morning I would recommend a Telemann fantasy or just a flute solo, preferably with the authentic instruments. It combines wonderfully with a light breeze coming in from the half-open window, and with Clarissa Dalloway’s morning, which “was lovely. Like the beat of a perfect heart, life beating in the streets. With no recoil, no hesitation.”

A poppy pastry (In a bakery near you…)

What’s left is a poppy pastry. Sweet, but not banal. Sweet, but not up to the point of suffering. Perfect for a morning of pleasant autumn, for caressing sunrays, for Clarissa Dalloway’s shopping before her evening party, for Telemann who I already replaced with Handel. Perhaps Mrs. Dalloway too could be replaced by some other lady, but the sun rays and the poppy pastry are irreplaceable.

Bio: **Michal Zamir** was born in Tel Aviv in 1964 and holds an MA in literature from Tel Aviv University. She worked for several years for the culture supplement of the daily Maariv. At present, Zamir gives courses on Yiddish literature and Hassidic stories at Tel Aviv University. She has published two novels and a novella. Read an excerpt from her novel, Ship of Girls, here.

Photo: Vardi Kahana © All rights reserved.