Yehuda Amichai (1924–2000)

Since I rarely read poetry, I don't have a lot of context to evaluate this collection. Poetry seems to be as much about the feeling as the content, so I'll just concentrate on the impressions it left with me. Isolation seems to be a recurring theme in the collection, both external and internal. There is absence of psychological intimacy and a disconnect between thought and feeling. There is also a heaviness to the poems in the collection – the weight of the past and the heaviness of the present. The poems aren't particularly sorrowful, but there's a definite absence of joy. Most of the poems don't seem particularly religious to me, but religious imagery appears throughout the collection, as in “Sort of Apocalypse” which begins “The man under his fig tree telephoned the man under his vine”.

Yehuda Amichai was an immigrant to Israel, and I think that comes across in this collection of his poetry. There's a sense of being cut off from his past, of being in a different place, a strange place, a home that isn't yet home. Even though the English translation is very good and was awarded the National Jewish Book Award for translated poetry, I can't help but feel I've missed something by being unable to read it in its original Hebrew. I borrowed this from the library and liked it well enough to want to add a selection of Amichai's poetry to my personal library.… (mere)

According to the book jacket Amichai is Israels leading poet. This was his last book of poetry. Many of the poems in this collection are inspired by a small piece of stone that Amichai kept on his desk - a fragment from a Jewish tombstone from a cemetery that was destroyed a thousand years ago. The fragment reads "amen" Most of the poems are about or reference religion and Jewish culture/ history. Amichai has a unique style and the poems are lovely and funny. Here's an example:

When God packed up and left the country, He left the Torah
with the Jews.They have been looking for Him ever since,
shouting,"Hey, you forgot something, you forgot."
and other people think shouting is the prayer of the Jews.… (mere)