Yehuda Amichai Books

I recently bought this on a whim at the book store and was pleased at it turning out to be one of my best purchases. Instantly one of my favorites, Amichai writes with the perfect mixture of narrative and metaphor, balancing his poetry perfectly on the line between clarity and obscurity. His metaphors are original, concise, and leave you thinking. At the same time, Amichai's poetry is not inaccesible. His writing is simple enough to grasp the first time through, but also complex enough for you to peel away the layers of meaning as you read again and again.

While some of the poetry is political or cultural in nature (Amichai is an Israeli and Jew), don't let that discourage you from thinking it doesn't have any application to your life. Like Chaim Potok, Amichai breathes a life into his words that enlightens you toward life's simplicities, regardless of your background. Top notch stuff.

I have other translations of Amichai's poetry but love this book, translated by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell, the best.

To read Yehuda Amichai in English is to sojourn, yes, in Jerusalem, more, in Amichai's denuded heart -- but to see it all with a crick in my neck, able only to look out the left-hand side of the bus. In this translation of his Selected Poetry, the scenes pass: stone and sand architecture; crowds of workers, soldiers, family members; heaped goods and quiet meals; long loves and fleeting notice. Reading these poems is to sustain explosions of new sense memories, to be consumed with fresh details -- reading the poems in English is to know they harbor still more beauty. Not knowing Hebrew, I can't turn my head to see what incomparable, heartbreaking balance of truth and wish lies out that window.

Amichai's voice is calm, colloquial, casual. The way one might say, "Pardon me, you've dropped your pen," Amichai will say, "And in the big cities, protestors blocked the roads like / a blocked heart, whose master will die..."

So I wonder what I'm not hearing. How must one who makes easy fantastical connections, who sets single nouns and entire memory constructs equal, also play with homonym, rhythm, internal rhyme, with invented words, cousins of ancient words? This is, after all, Amichai--a poet credited with revivification, with re-knitting the bones of Hebrew vernacular. His poetry gave a country a new map into its old language.

Here's Amichai: "At the end of summer I breathe this air / that is burnt and pained. My thoughts have / the stillness of many closed books: / many crowded books, with most of their pages / stuck together like eyelids in the morning."

And Amichai, to a woman: "You had a laughter of grapes: / many round green laughs. / Your body is full of lizards. / All of them love the sun."

In these poems, the acts of watching and describing become one intention, one result. Amichai systematizes little, responds much; sees, and does not sneer; judges, not to dispose but to know. His poems are not slices of life, but core samples.

If you want to learn something about how to love a city and yet not pretend its horrors do not exist, how to cherish a person, yet not omit flawed relationship, read Yehuda Amichai. If you want to read not a declaration of love, but a proof of love, read Amichai. For to observe without flinching, whatever terrors of truth or beauty may appear, and remain steadfast, observing, is a proof of love. "I see everything about you," Amichai says to the city, the seasons, the soldiers, his woman, his father, his God, "and here I am still."

Amichai is not frightened away. He thereby makes it safe for us to look on a terrible world complete.

I suspect that in Hebrew, the one difficulty of these poems would dissipate. In weight, in flavor, the poems are like a rare, nutritive honey -- not a condiment but a dietary staple, heavy, dependable. I suspect that in Hebrew the tone dances, that the phrases don't share a single, though delicious, viscosity, as in English. But who am I to complain of manna?

What survives translation is not the full tour, not a map to Hebrew vernacular. What survives is a map through Amichai. We can navigate by these lines and points, read the poems like the knots of a safety rope -- here -- we descend into the technical truths of war, of loss, and of heretofore unimaginable love.

Amichai is the most popular and beloved poet of Israel. His language is at once understandable , and clear, deep and suggestive. He learned from American poetry the colloquial voice and he speaks to his reader in a kind of down-to- earth language which is nonetheless rich with knowledge of Hebrew traditional texts, most prominently the Bible. Amichai writes of the great themes , love and war, and he writes out of his own experience. He writes with reverence and irony both in relation to the people close to him and to the land of Israel. His connection with Jerusalem is special and he presents the many layers of its complex history and identity through his own personal daily meanderings in the city.
He is a humane and profound poetry who while confronting the most painful realities nonetheless presents a voice strongly affirming the value of life.

I was first introduced to Amichai's poetry through this collection. He is a first-rate poet in any language; the translations by Chana Block and Stephen Mitchell are wonderful.

Amichai was born in Germany in 1924, but immigrated to Israel as a boy of 12; he began writing poetry early, especially in the exuberant atmosphere of the newly proclaimed Israel in 1948. Amichai continued to write poetry throughout the twentieth century (he died in 2000), winning national and international prizes and recognition as one of the greatest poets of the age, not only of Hebrew, but internationally. As modern Hebrew is a language still emerging from the shadows of its ancient-but-still-used predecessor, Amichai was a major figure in developing the poetic nuances of the language that helped to expand the limits of meaning in words and usage.

Amichai's poetry represented here spans most of his productive life. The first part includes poems from his collections from 1955 to 1968, from the birth of the state of Israel to the aftermath of the 1967 war. One poem, 'Jerusalem 1967', is a long and majestic play on emotions and images -- Jerusalem here is likened to Sodom and Pompeii, as well as revered as the universal city that it is; Amichai's personal experience floods the historical events he witnessed with emotion that conjures up ancient memories.

The second part includes poems from writings 1971 to 1985. The maturity of Amichai's passions and writing style match the development of world affairs, into a post-war situation, with tentative amblings toward peace. Still there are tragedies and problems, and these make appearances in Amichai's poems. The weariness of the modern world is highlighted in his poem, 'Jerusalem is full of used Jews' -- worn out by history, Amichai wrote. Still there are hopeful signs, as love in its many faces is always the centre of Amichai's world. Amichai is a patriot of sorts, in that he celebrates the place and culture of Israel, but is not blind to the problems there, and by no means a 'death to the enemy' kind of writer -- a bit ironic, given that his poetry is popular among the soldier-citizenry of Israel.

Some poems have decided biblical and religious connections, even if they are not religious in tone or direct meaning. 'Jacob and the Angel' obviously takes its title from the early story in Genesis, but beyond that, the context and content is very different. Some show the international character of modern Israeli experience. Many poems, while decidedly Amichai, could have been written anywhere, and the situations and feelings of love are universal.

Stunning poetry!

some translations could be better, but a lovely anthology of a beautiful poet. Try "hebrew verse" by carmi for english/hebrew of other hebrew poetry.

Amichai was one of the major voices of the 20th century. He's not sufficiently well-known, perhaps because he wrote in Hebrew. The world needs to discover this humane, wise man.
This is a parallel text with the translations done by some very well-known poets, including Ted Hughes. Amichai translates well into English. His language is matter-of-fact and conversational -- his metaphors are always arresting.
Jerusalem was Amicha's city and provided his greatest inspiration. he described the problems of living in such a city better than anyone else.
He writes:
"Jerusalem is built on the vaulted foundations
of a held-back scream. If there were no reason
for the scream, the foundations would crumble, the city would collapse;
if the scream were screamed, Jerusalem would explode into the heavens."
And also:
"Jerusalem is a port city on the shores of eternity.
The Temple Mount is a huge ship, a magnificent
luxury liner. From the portholes of her Western Wall
cheerful saints look out...'
And also:
"Jerusalem's a place where everyone remembers
he's forgotten something
but doesn't remember what it is."

Amichai is the most popular Hebrew poet since Bialik. Israelis love to read him because he writes with clarity , depth, beauty and irony of love and war, and of the realities they know in their everyday life. A walker in the city, a shopper in its markets, a teacher for many years there was something down- to- earth and reassuring about Amichai. In his poetry he uses the religious tradition he knows , making often a kind of ironic secular poetry that plays upon the great literature of the past. His great strengths are many including a deep connection with people he is close to, his parents, his comrades-in- arms, his family, his loves. Amichai is a poet who gives the reader the sense of sharing one's common humanity with. He can take experiences which might seem ordinary and commonplace, and transform them into memorable lines.
What a wonderful poet he is.
Reading this collection will give insight and pleasure.

Yehuda Amichai's poetry is so close to the marrow of grief andlove and hope and longing that when you put down this book, you willhave loved and lost and wept with him. The rooms he has inhabited will be your rooms. And maybe, just maybe, is she isn't already, the city Yerushalayim will be your city as well. Buy this book...

Yehuda Amichai is the kind of poet whose words and images you remember at the oddest times. He sticks to your mind - maybe because the quiet force with which he speaks of shadow and light, places and times, seasons and colors, longing and joy. Ever-present in his work are the themes of love, loss, and the harsh reality of war, but the effect is never one of violence - Amichai's poems have always made me feel peaceful and strangely contented. He is a poet for empathizing with. After reading him I feel as if I had taken a long walk on a sunny afternoon in the quiet neighborhood that I love. Excuse me for the ranting, but I can find no better way to express it. His Jerusalem emerges both as a real - and beautiful - city, and as an enchanted place where (like in the old fairytales) nothing is casual or common. He writes in the way I myself would like to write.

I picked up this little volume and began to read. I know Amichai's work in Hebrew and wanted to see how much came over in English translation. I was astonished. The poems are also tremendously powerful and moving in translation.
He opens with a poem of commemoration to a comrade who was killed on the sands of Ashdod in Israel's War of Independence. He writes such a beautiful love poem to his wife Chana, a poem which subtlely remarks on the changing character of love with the years. He writes of meeting tourists in his holy city home Jerusalem, and how they looking for monuments do not see the real thing, the man, the poet with two - shopping bags in his hand on his way home from the market.
Amichai is a poet of war and a poet of love. He is a poet of clear colloquial language and the very deepest feeling.
Who reads this book will not only have tremendous pleasure, they will know the work of a truly great writer.

Yehuda Amichai is quite probably one of the last warrior poets. He is a veteran of three wars and has tasted the bitter fruit of human suffering and the loss of love. His knack for expounding both lament and spiritual awareness through his knowledge of the Tanakh are by all means, impressive. This book is a good introduction to some of his very straight forward and powerful work. His poems on war are meditations in remembering, litany's for a time gone by and not to be forgotten. Amichai fondles the human heart flwalessly, he coaxes it open with his soft words, there is nothing brash about his verse, it is gentle, like the soldier who picks up a refuge child in the field, softly so as not to impart the violence in his hands to the child now entering his embrace. A must read for any lover of poetry

Yehuda Amichai is quite probably one of the last warrior poets. He is a veteran of three wars and has tasted the bitter fruit of human suffering and the loss of love. His knack for expounding both lament and spiritual awareness through his knowledge of the Tanakh are by all means, impressive. This book is a good introduction to some of his very straight forward and powerful work. His poems on war are meditations in remembering, litany's for a time gone by and not to be forgotten. Amichai fondles the human heart flwalessly, he coaxes it open with his soft words, there is nothing brash about his verse, it is gentle, like the soldier who picks up a refuge child in the field, softly so as not to impart the violence in his hands to the child now entering his embrace. A must read for any lover of poetry

"Pain is a grandfather:/Sired two generations/of look-alike pains."

Not a single poem in this collection is superfluous. Each leads to the next and weaves a tapestry of images. Poetry in general, when it is really good, has the ability to touch you on a level you did not think possible. "If we don't remain together, we won't remain at all. Let alone life." It expresses thoughts and feelings in words you could not find. "Eternity is a perfect/Form of mutual loneliness." It introduces new angles to old ideas or contributes poignancy to unconsidered thoughts. Sometimes, the experience of the poet is foreign to the reader, but the reader can still feel on some level the feeling the poet felt. Amichai is among my favorite poets for his ability to create such a rich and sudden injection of reaction in me.

I find it unfortunate that I don't read Hebrew and have to read Amichai's poetry in the "lie of translation". I suspect a great deal is lost, but I still cannot fault what access I do have to these poems.

I cannot do much justice to Amichai with descriptive words. You will have to read it yourself. I know poetry is not necessarily everyone's favorite thing, but I think it is an acquired taste.

"And we didn't know then that remnants of happiness/ Are like remnants of every collapse/ That you have to clear away to start anew."

Amichai is I believe the most read of all modern Hebrew poets. His writing works on many different levels, and often has a simple surface story meaning which is eminently understandable. But beneath there are layers of complexity and irony, a deep awareness of Hebrew poetry, and traditional religious sources. Amichai's themes are the great themes of literature, themes of love and war, of comradeship and loss. His poetry too centers on his city, Jerusalem, and is a reading of its landscapes and mindscapes.
In this volume there are scholarly essays that enhance our understanding of this poet.
But Amichai who learned much from American modern poets use of the colloquial is excellently translated into English here.
Who meets this volume meets a poetry of exceptional meaning and beauty.

Amichai is the great master of modern Hebrew poetry, whose work can always be read at many different levels. There is a clear surface meaning, and there are layers of implications. The language too is like Agnon rich with religious traditional textual irony.
With Amichai the poetry always really means.

Yehuda Amichai was a great poet. His work speaks on many levels to a wide audience of readers, and for Israelis he is something like a national poet. He writes of the experiences of War and Love in an ironic colloquial language which often has Biblical reference and echo. Raised as a religious Jew the literature of the Tradition is part of his heritage and often plays and comments on it. Amichai learned much from American colloquial language poets, and moved away from the formal language of his predecessors. He is very much a poet of Jerusalem and its special landcape, heritage and world. Above all he speaks to the universal in the heart of Man, to all that we dream to be in love, and death, life and poetry. .

I have long loved this bilingual edition of Amichai's poetry - I studied modern Hebrew prior to studying Biblical Hebrew; I chanced upon this book on a friend's shelf while studying, and was presented with the volume as a gift for successful completion of the modern Hebrew class.

This text presents 49 poems in dual language format, the original Hebrew on the left pages, and the corresponding English translation on the right. The translations come from a variety of persons - this is not a word-for-word rendering, but a poetic interpretation. Amichai, knowledgeable in English himself, together with the noted poet Ted Hughes, translated a good number of the poems into English.

These poems are gleanings from several collections of Amichai's poetry, including some volumes that are available in English. They are a testament to the kind of emotion and love that exists in all kinds of settings, but particularly the setting of the new country of Israel, grown out of the people who survived the terrible war in Europe, and into a controversial place in the world.

Amichai was born in Germany in 1924, but immigrated to Israel as a boy of 12; he began writing poetry early, especially in the exuberant atmosphere of the newly proclaimed Israel in 1948. Amichai continued to write poetry throughout the twentieth century (he died in 2000), winning national and international prizes and recognition as one of the greatest poets of the age, not only of Hebrew, but internationally. As modern Hebrew is a language still emerging from the shadows of its ancient-but-still-used predecessor, Amichai was a major figure in developing the poetic nuances of the language that helped to expand the limits of meaning in words and usage.

Some poems have decided biblical and religious connections, even if they are not religious in tone or direct meaning. 'Jacob and the Angel' obviously takes its title from the early story in Genesis, but beyond that, the context and content is very different. Some show the international character of modern Israeli experience - 'A Czech Refugee in London' reflects this. Many poems, while decidedly Amichai, could have been written anywhere, and the situations and feelings of love are universal.

Great poems!

This is by far one of Amichai's most incredible collections. This tri-lingual book is a wonderful introduction to Amichai's poetry, to poetry in general, and should be read by anyone who has ever been moved by a desert lanscape, especially that of Israel and Jordan.

I am an Israeli American poet whose style is compared to Yehuda's
and I feel a very strong connection with his work. I had a bi-lingual poetry collection of his before I purchased Patuah Sagur
Patuah (Open Closed Open ) I also have the English translation
Open Closed Open, which my non-Hebrew speaking husband reads.
I read from Patuah Sagur Patuah, translating out loud as he reads
from the English. We enjoy reading Amichai's work together like this..but while all of the translations of Amichai's works into
English are very accurate..what I can not strongly emphasize enough is that all Hebrew speakers get a hold of the works in Hebrew if humanly possible.

Yehuda Amichai is a great poet. His work appeals on many different levels. First of all , he writes about the experiences of love and of war, and of everyday life in a society fighting for its life. Secondly , he uses his knowledge of traditional Jewish sources to create a rich ironic and contemplative text .Thirdly he is as a writer and as a person, ' decent' and ' fair'. Fourthly, his language has the quiet beauty of Hebrew colloquial .
Amichai's poetry captures the mood of the holy city the city in which there is so much beauty and so much conflict and contradiction. And he enhances our sense of reality and life.