Yehuda Amichai

[islandpoet]

The Diameter of the Bomb

The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,
with four dead and eleven wounded.
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won’t even mention the crying of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God and
beyond, making
a circle with no end and no God.

    -- Yehuda Amichai


One of the best Jewish poets..

[islandpoet]

My Father

The memory of my father is wrapped up in
white paper, like sandwiches taken for a day at work.

Just as a magician takes towers and rabbits
out of his hat, he drew love from his small body,

and the rivers of his hands
overflowed with good deeds.

   -- Yehuda Amichai


this one is very simple but succinct. x:

[islandpoet]

We Did It

We did it in front of the mirror
And in the light. We did it in darkness,
In water, and in the high grass.

We did it in honour of man
And in honour of beast and in honour of God.
But they didn't want to know about us,
They'd already seen our sort.

We did it with imagination and colours,
With confusion of reddish hair and brown
And with difficult gladdening
Excercises. We did it

Like wheels and holy creatures
And with chariot-feats of prophets.
We did it six wings
And six legs

But the heavens
Were hard above us
Like the earth of the summer.


and this one is my favorite.

[Bonnie]

Hi Islandpoet, I loved these, do you know if his poetry is available through the library or can I get it at Amazon? I've never read him before and I really like his style. Thanks for introducing him.   
Bonnie  :hx:

[islandpoet]

no sweat bonnie, always glad to share some poet..lol.

i'll probably tell you how i came across yehuda amichai.  I read a short story with a title "we didn't" that used the first stanza of amichai's poem "we did it"  as an epigraph and i found the name really catchy so i googled him up and came to pages about his poetry and enjoyed his writings very much. i like his voice in his works, the wit and humor and the sadness in it.

now where to find them. this link will probably help. and there's always wikipedia..hehehe.

http://www.uvm.edu/%7Esgutman/Amichai.htm

enjoy!

[Bonnie]

Thanks 'Poet, I can't get him through the library here and I didn't even think of checking online, some days I have such tunnel-vision I can't see the forest for the trees.   
 
Bonnie  x:

[Hannah]

Island Poet,
I've never read any of this poet's work before, but it's really having an impact on me and I'm loving it. Thank you for introducing him to me. I love this one. It's so powerful and anyone can relate to it without having been a Holocaust survivor. What a wonderful survivalist spirit he portrays.
Hannah


I Want to Die in My Own Bed

All night the army came up from Gilgal
To get to the killing field, and that's all.
In the ground, warf and woof, lay the dead.
I want to die in My own bed.

Like slits in a tank, their eyes were uncanny,
I'm always the few and they are the many.
I must answer. They can interrogate My head.
But I want to die in My own bed.

The sun stood still in Gibeon. Forever so, it's willing
to illuminate those waging battle and killing.
I may not see My wife when her blood is shed,
But I want to die in My own bed.

Samson, his strength in his long black hair,
My hair they sheared when they made me a hero
Perforce, and taught me to charge ahead.
I want to die in My own bed.

I saw you could live and furnish with grace
Even a lion's den, if you've no other place.
I don't even mind to die alone, to be dead,
But I want to die in My own bed.

Translated from the Hebrew by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav, in A Life of Poetry: 1948 - 1994, New York, HarperCollins, 1994, with thanks to the publisher

[islandpoet]

This is probably a very late reply Hannah but thanks for sharing that poem. I think I have read that somewhere but I couldn't remember the title and where I read that. Really deserved his Nobel, this guy.

We couldn't even read Hebrew but it's having an impact on us. I think some of the things in the poems do get lost in translation.

[Hannah]

Nothing wrong with late replies - and here's mine. 
It seems every time I read I Want to Die in My Own Bed it becomes more powerful. It is of our times, and also of all time. Of all the ways there are to die, war and people killing people is the basest way to die. Translation is something I wonder about quite a bit. What are we missing? What level of emotion, meaning, pertinence is lost? Hopefully, as little as possible, but I'm sure most works are best in their own tongue.
I have my local book shop looking for any works in English I can buy so I can get to know Amichai better. 
Hannah

[islandpoet]

Hannah!

Been almost 2 years since I last posted here. Between that time and now, I have been through 2 jobs. Both as high school teacher of Biology and Science. And now I am here in Okayama, Japan for Masters.

I have not written much in between though. But I had the privilege of joining one creative writing workshop in the University of the Philippines and that was one great experience! After the workshop my poem was selected to be published in a booklet of poems, essays and short stories. Wohooooooo! That was my first serious step towards writing. The only thing is that poem was in my native Cebuano language.

But oh yeah, going back to the topic here, how was your search for Amichai? Did you come across a good book?

[Larsen M Callirhoe]

hi island poet and everyone.

i enjoyed the poems posted by this guy.  i like his style and wit.  thanks for introducing me to this man islandpoet.  i will most definetely chim him out.

victor

[Hannah]

G'day islandpoet 

You have been busy! It all sounds very exciting and hard work, too, no doubt. A huge congratulations on your poem being published!  We've put up a new board, at the top of the Main Page where you can put details of any successes any of us have with our writing - and being published definitely qualifies 
Sorry to take so long to answer, and I hope you get to see this! I haven't been in much for some time. We've been so very busy at work I've hardly had time to lift my head for things like Creative Corner, unfortunately. And every spare minute I get goes to working on my current novel.

Actually, I think I need to remind my local book shop about my request. I haven't heard back from them re Amichai ... hmmm  But they did find me a copy of The Secret Life of Bees which I read about ten years ago as an obscure first book, and found in an out of the way book shop but gave that copy to a friend, and hadn't seen anywhere again. Now, due to the film, it's easy to get - after my book shop got it for me! 

Hope to hear from you one day soon!

Hannah