Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000):Poet of

Modern Israel

English 232

Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English.

For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for republication.

Biography

Born 1924 in Germany, Orthodox Jewish family, emigrated to Palestine, 1936.

Served with British Army, WWII. Later with Israeli Army and with Palmach (elite guerilla unit).

Attended Hebrew University while teaching high school

Career

Wrote poems, plays, novels, children’s books, essays

Nominee for Nobel Prize Translated into 30

languages

Amichai and the Land

Arab and Israeli Claims

Map key

Palestinian control

Partial Palestinian control

Israeli control

Golan Heights

West Bank

State of Israel -- 1948

Palestine was Turkish when Jewish settlers began coming in late 1800s. British liberated it in WW I, 1917. Issued Balfour Declaration of British support for Jewish homeland.

UN Partition Plan, 1947 Israel established May 14, 1948. Attacked the next

day by Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan. Arab-Israeli Wars took place 1956, 1967, 1973.

“If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem”

If I forget thee, Jerusalem,

Then let my right be forgotten.

“Jerusalem”On a roof in the Old City,

Laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight:

The white sheet of a woman who is my enemy,

“Tourists”

They weep at the beautiful prowess of our boys,

Lust after our tough girls

And hang up their underwear

To dry quickly

In cool blue bathrooms

“An Arab Shepherd Is Searching for His Goat on Mount Zion”

And on the opposite mountain I am searching

For my little boy.

An Arab shepherd and a Jewish father

Both in their temporary failure.

Amichai on Writing

Everyone can make poetry. It begins with a child’s naming things, as Adam and Eve named the animals. “Poetry was present in the Garden of Eden.”

All poetry is political, even love poetry. But he hates “poster-like” political poetry.

Amichai on Writing “Poetry is everywhere.

Everything is poetry, to me.” Amichai once said that he wrote

“in order to comfort myself. About life, about wars, about difficulty. I write poems after things are finished. During war and love, poems are not written.”

Amichai’s subject: human situation

Relations between people, between people and God

Even use kitsch [art that shows off its bad taste; shabby or vulgar art]. “Real life is kitsch.” Sunsets, birth, death, funerals are kitsch. The poet is “not to run away from kitschy situations but use it in a dry and down-to-earth way.”

Amichai on peace “I would rather fight for

non-war.” The term peace is too easily said. “Peace is something for which people were ready to go out and kill.” Leaders have always claimed, “This war is for peace.”

The role of the poet is "to name each thing, each feeling, each experience, plainly and accurately, without pretense."

Sources

Mubarak statement, links to maps: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/06/03/bush.arabs/index.html

http://www.snunit.k12.il/shireshet/amichai/ http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/amichai1.gif http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/photos/

APR/30.html Amichai’s view on writing and poetry are taken from his

interview in the Lannan Poetry Series http://www.uvm.edu/~sgutman/Amichai.htm

Sources

http://www.tekla-szymanski.com/engl6amichai.html http://www.marlbororeview.com/feature.html http://info.jpost.com/2000/Supplements/Amihai/4.html http://gbh2000.tripod.com/pasttripping/id15.html http://www.jafi.org.il/education/lifecycle/bneimitsva/j.html http://biblia.com/jesusm/places.htm http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/

mmarkowski/212/2/wwall.html