Product Description
Poetry. Yehuda Amichai is Israel's most popular poet as well as a literary figure of international reputation.His poetry has been translated into more than thirty languages.Renowned translators Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell have selected Amichai's most beloved and enduring poems from his eleven volumes and have included forty new poems from his recent work in this revised and expanded collection."For sheer energy of imagination, for the constantly renewed sense of poetry's ability to engage reality, Amichai has no close competitors on the Israeli scene, and perhaps only a few worldwide." --Robert Alter, New York Times Magazine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Amichai's beautiful map
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.

The most popular poet of Israel
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.

A great collection of a great poet's work
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!

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant
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.

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

Product Description
bilingual edition, tr from Hebrew by various ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A cautionary note on the translations
Amichai's poetic voice is, as so many know, well worth hearing. And that voice constitutes half of this book--the half that is his poetry in the original Hebrew. That half I give 5 stars. My disappointment lies with the translations.

And while this book represents the work of various translators, and some poems are, therefore, rendered more accurately than others, I have often wondered why translators--here, but in many translations of other poets, too--presume to change the division of lines (where the poet chose to end and begin lines) and why they so frequently add or omit words, or use imprecise semi-synonyms or somewhat similar expressions instead of sticking closely to literal translation...changes which warp the feel of the original poem. Poetry is an exquisitely subtle dance of words; people should not pretend to be translating, it seems to me, if they are putting their own twist on the poet's work, or merely loosely conveying the general meaning of the poem. (And, I dare say, even the poet himself should not pretend to be translating his original poem if he does such things.)

Examples of the above-mentioned imprecision and infidelity are so numerous in this book that anyone familiar with both English and Hebrew will, if reading carefully, find them in nearly every poem.

Because I've seen how common it is for poetry to be translated sloppily, I try to buy foreign poets only in bilingual editions, so that I have a chance of catching the poems' original voice and intent. Regrettably, in this case such caution turns out to have been warranted.

Read Amichai, by all means! But study the original Hebrew of his poems if you can, and judge for yourself whether the translations do the poems justice.

Beautiful, life affirming, profound
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 citywould 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."

Asecular psalm in Jerusalem
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.

lovely
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.

One of those voices you should stop and listen to
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. ... Read more

Product Description
The poems in this book are presented in the original Hebrew and English translation ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Joys of the Bi-lingual edition
Yehuda Amichai, Israeli's greatest modern poet, has demanded a level of respect which has given to us, his readers, several excellent collections of his poems, often in bi-lingual editions.`Love Poems' is one such work, and here the reader is treated to some of Amichai's most sensuous, evocative work.Amichai was one of the first Hebrew poets to use "vernacular" Hebrew, the Hebrew used in common, everyday situations, rather than the elevated diction of poetic Hebrew, which was disconnected, in meaningful ways, form the spoken language.That is not found here.Amichai is earthy, even bawdy in his Hebrew, using evocative and pungent images of love and sex.The Hebrew and English, side by side, give those with some knowledge of the language a chance to see how a vernacular can be elevated to poetic diction without losing touch with its roots.

Simply love...
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! ... Read more

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poetry, tr Glenda Abramson & Tudor Parfitt ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Astonishingly great poetry
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 poemsare 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 ofa truly great writer.

A warrior poet unbound
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 spiritualawareness through his knowledge of the Tanakh are by all means, impressive.This book is a good introduction to some of his very straight forward andpowerful work. His poems on war are meditations in remembering, litany'sfor a time gone by and not to be forgotten. Amichai fondles the human heartflwalessly, he coaxes it open with his soft words, there is nothing brashabout his verse, it is gentle, like the soldier who picks up a refuge childin the field, softly so as not to impart the violence in his hands to thechild now entering his embrace. A must read for any lover of poetry

A warrior poet unbound
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 spiritualawareness through his knowledge of the Tanakh are by all means, impressive.This book is a good introduction to some of his very straight forward andpowerful work. His poems on war are meditations in remembering, litany'sfor a time gone by and not to be forgotten. Amichai fondles the human heartflwalessly, he coaxes it open with his soft words, there is nothing brashabout his verse, it is gentle, like the soldier who picks up a refuge childin the field, softly so as not to impart the violence in his hands to thechild now entering his embrace. A must read for any lover of poetry ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Reading the Bible like the Newspaper
The poet Ted Hughes, who translated many of Yehuda Amichai's poems (in tandem with the poet) said he admired Amichai's poetry because he could read the Bible like a newspaper.What Hughes meant, of course, was that Amichai did what many Hebrew poets do, but only did it exceptionally well: he often employed the language of the Bible, the elevated literary Hebrew of the Tanackh, and juxtaposed it with gritty, living reality of Israeli Hebrew, with its slang and neologisms, with startling results.

And nowhere is this seen more clearly than in this collection of poems about Jerusalem.In "Psalm" Amichai writes: A song on a day /some building contractor / cheated me.A Psalm.And in "The Heaven's are the Lord's Heavens" he writes "And the earth was given to man. But / who finds gold and marble in the house of prayer?/ And how many men who kiss the mezuzah / Have been kissed with love by a woman? / And how many women who throw themselves / on a holy tomb / Have ever been taken from behind and fainted from pleasure?"

Amichai contrasts the holy with the profane, mixing them up to the point of absurdity, while touching upon his frequent theme of a world abandoned by God.In this bi-lingual edition, the reader can see that there is no real diglossia in Hebrew.The classic Hebrew of the Bible and the Israeli Hebrew of the streets are mutually intelligible, and can even share a line in a poem to the enriching, mutual advantage of both.

A great poem in the holy city
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 theholy 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.
... Read more

Product Description
Yehuda Amichai: A Life of Poetry 1948-1994 offers a comprehensive and timely evaluation of the body of work of one of our most valuable poets in any language. Employing the style and idiomof a post-Modernism--of a twentieth-century artist--and filtering it through the prism of his Israeli and Jewish sensibilities, Amichai's words ifs cosmopolitan, muscular, and ironic. Resounding with the exhilarating of the human encounters--it is brought into the sharper contrast by the ever-present precariousness of Israeli existence. The burden and legacy of this history, and its impact upon modern, secular society, places Amichai's work within a uniquely Israeli landscape--arid, verdant, cruel, and beautiful--while simultaneously transcending national and religious borders. Translated from the Hebrew by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav, this volume brings Amichai to his rightful place beside the leading poets of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A poet of great human insight and beauty
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.

"Hearts without rations, prophecies without water"
"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." ... Read more

Product Description

In poems marked by tenderness and mischief, humanity and humor, Yehuda Amichai breaks open the grand diction of revered Jewish verses and casts the light of his own experi­ence upon them. Here he tells of history, a nation, the self, love, and resurrection. Amichai’s last volume is one of medi­tation and hope, and stands as a testament to one of Israel’s greatest poets.
 
Open closed open. Before we are born, everything is open
in the universe without us. For as long as we live, everything is closed
within us. And when we die, everything is open again.
Open closed open. That’s all we are.

—from “I WASN’T ONE OF THE SIX MILLION:
   AND WHAT IS MY LIFE SPAN? OPEN CLOSED OPEN”

Customer Reviews (7)

Amichai Forever
I cannot say if this represents the best of Yehuda Amichai or whether his earlier work was better but it is "for the ages." Amichai forever.

The violent or anonymous love of God for Israel? A translation mistake
There is a translation mistake on p. 45: "God's love for His people Israel is... almost violent", should be: 'almost anonymous' (note the continuation: "on a no-name basis"), as a look at the Hebrew original shows.The words sound similar in Hebrew, and, but for a crucial different letter, are also spelled similarly. Amichai may have intended the double entendre. In this part of the poem Amichai points to the physical, embodied and impersonal use of force on the part of God in the early part of the Exodus narrative, and contrasts this with the spiritual, dis-emboded, and personal God of later Judaism. While this latter God is conventionally rated higher, Amichai finds it "hopeless' to return love to such a dis-embodied God. Love has to be embodied to be real for him.

The day-to-day Israeli poetry
Yehuda Amichai was the greatest Israeli poet. While he does write about Jewish values, feelings, and pains, he writes as an Israeli, not only as a Jewish person.

In his poetry, he intertwines subjects such as love, holocaust, the bible, and day-to-day life, in a subtle way. His metaphors are amazingly beautiful, especially due to the fact that he uses really simple vocabulary. He plays with ideas, not with words.

In "Open Closed Open", I like the way he writes about bible figures as men (or women) and for a moment reminds us of their reality, not their power and superiority. I also love the comparisons he builds between orthodox and non-observant customs. IMHO, this is his best book.

I have read the book both in Hebrew and in English, and this version is very well translated, even though the translator changes the order of the poems (I cannot understand the reason).

If you want to learn Hebrew, he is a very good source. I know that in Israel there are several bilingual versions of his books (not this one, unfortunately). You should look for them. That's the way I did it!

The Perfect Ending
This, the final of Yehuda Amichai's works, lays to rest a life and career memorable to no end.Open Closed Open is about the Israel that is and has been -- tensions that have not faded -- complexities that have not eroded -- and loves that remain in spite of it all.It is, in every sense, a book of poetry, of poetics unequalled.Please read Open Closed Open.

Genius
Amichai's poetry, and especially this book, is the pristine instance of a Jewish literature. To Jews, or those interested in Jewish culture, Amichai's symbols and meditations will strike a profound chord, as he draws on Jewish culture--from Abraham to modernity--to create a comprehensive poetic representation of a people's collective conscience.

However, even those with little interest in Jewish culture should be able to appreciate this work, as Amichai's commentary on the ephemerality of life, the beauty of love and the capriciousness of the world bears a profound appeal to all readers. I would recommend this book as a prime example of how beautiful modern poetry can be. Amichai takes ancient symbols and historical allusions, fits them into a uniquely modern meditation, and the result is breathtaking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A reading of the work of a great poet
This is an academic study of the work of the person many regard as the finest Hebrew poet of the past half- century. Amichai is a poet whose deep connection with the life and reality of modern Israel have made him one of its most beloved poets. Abramson analyses some of the major themes techniques and forms of his work. Her chapters are titled: Biography and Autobiography, Allusion and Irony, The Father of God, Alienation and Fragmentation, The Love Poetry, Jerusalem, Not of this Time, Not of this Place- The Short Stories, The Stage Plays.
Among her claims is that Amichai is despite his involvement in writing about the two major events of modern Jewish history, The Shoah and the Birth of Israel is not a political poet. He is a poet within the Hebraic tradition whose examination of the theme of fathers and sons, is done in relation to the problem of orthodoxy and secularism . " His search for faith is not for the revival of a lost or denied metaphysical sentiment , rather it is for the indication of a moral purpose within the existing world and in history. His early work is preoccupied with quarrying for himself some sense in the darkness of war and personal confusion, and learning to live within an ontological context that has rejected the centrality of God and in which traditional imperatives are no longer valid. Together with the romantic nostalgia that characterizes much of the poetry of his generation, this constitutes his worldview."
Abramson provides true insight into Amichai but there is of course no substitute for reading this poet of the landscape of Jerusalem and the Jewish soul , in irony ,contradiction, friendship, comradeship of battle, love, loss stone and silence.
... Read more

Product Description
Yehuda Amichai was first brought to the attention of readers in the UK by his inclusion in "Modern Poetry in Translation" in 1965. This book provides a selection of Amichai's poetry translated by various hands, demonstrating what makes his own talent so unique. ... Read more

Product Description
TheEarly Books of Yehuda Amichai collects for the first time in a single volume the three works -- Songs of Jerusalem and Myself,Poems and Time -- that established Amichai as Israel's greatest contemporary poet and one of the major poets of our time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

No words do justice to this collection of poetry
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. ... Read more

Product Description
Yehuda Amichai is one of the twentieth century's (and Israel's) leading poets. In this remarkable book, Gold offers a profound reinterpretation of Amichai's early works, using two sets of untapped materials: notes and notebooks written by Amichai in Hebrew and German that are now preserved in the Beinecke archive at Yale, and a cache of ninety-eight as-yet unpublished letters written by Amichai in 1947 and 1948 to a woman identified in the book as Ruth Z., which were recently discovered by Gold.

Gold found irrefutable evidence in the Yale archive and the letters to Ruth Z. that allows her to make two startling claims. First, she shows that in order to remake himself as an Israeli soldier-citizen and poet, Amichai suppressed ("camouflaged") his German past and German mother tongue both in reference to his biography and in his poetry.Yet, as her close readings of his published oeuvre as well as his unpublished German and Hebrew notes at the Beinecke show, these texts harbor the linguistic residue of his European origins. Gold, who knows both Hebrew and German, establishes that the poet's German past infused every area of his work, despite his attempts to conceal it in the process of adopting a completely Israeli identity.

Gold's second claim is that Amichai somewhat disguised the story of his own development as a poet.According to Amichai's own accounts, Israel's war of independence was the impetus for his creative writing. Long accepted as fact, Gold proves that this poetic biography is far from complete. By analyzing Amichai's letters and reconstructing his relationship with Ruth Z., Gold reveals what was really happening in the poet's life and verse at the end of the 1940s.These letters demonstrate that the chronological order in which Amichai's works were published does not reflect the order in which they were written; rather, it was a product of the poet's literary and national motivations.
... Read more

Product Description
French photographer Frederic Benner celebrates the 50th anniversary of the modern State of Israel by focusing on Jews whose age-old dreams of "next year in Jerusalem" have come true: they have returned from exile in the Diaspora to the Promised Land. 124 photos.Amazon.com Review
What happens when the wandering Jew comes home? For 20 yearsand across five continents, photographer Frederic Brenner documentedthe lives of members of the Jewish Diaspora. Then in 1997 he learnedthat 14 of the families he'd photographed around the world hadimmigrated to Israel. So in celebration of the Israel's 50thanniversary, Brenner photographed them again in their newhomeland. The before and after photos of each family are on facingpages, posed, but still representing the truths of their particularsituations. Stark or sophisticated interiors, crowded and dirty butsmiling families, and dancing children tell more than meets theeye. Some families have grown since they were first photographed; somehave become smaller. Are these families better off for having moved tothe land of milk and honey? What do Jews from Yemen, Russia, Europe,Tunisia, and the United States have in common? Brenner's photographsare so rich in content that the details he provides about them promptdeeper probing. There is so much more to ask as readers compare thefamilies to one another and to their past and current situations. Inkeeping with Jewish tradition, this collection is truly a book ofquestions. ... Read more