Read The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai Online
Authors: Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell
#14, line 11
,
Rachel-weeping-for-her-children:
Jer.
31:15.
#14, line 13
,
Degania:
The first kibbutz (collective settlement) in Palestine, established 1911.
#27, lines 6 ff.
,
rattles, palm branches, matzohs, Havdoleh box:
Jewish ritual objects for use on holidays and the Sabbath.
#31, line 7
,
cholent:
Traditional stew for the Sabbath noon meal, left in the oven to cook overnight.
Songs of Continuity
line 3
,
Me’ah She’arim:
A section of Jerusalem inhabited by Ultra-Orthodox Jews, typically dressed in the black gabardines of the medieval European ghettos.
line 4
,
A dead body:
Ultra-Orthodox Jews object, often violently, to what they consider the desecration of the dead.
I Walked Past a House Where I Lived Once
line 17
,
the Book of Life:
Jews pray on the High Holy Days to be inscribed by God in the Book of Life for the coming year.
Advice for Good Love
line 10
,
Samson took honey from the lion’s carcass:
Judges 14:5-20.
You Mustn’t Show Weakness
line 16
, Balaam: Numbers 22-25.
“The Rustle of History’s Wings,” as They Used to Say Then
line 11
,
the Jewish name of my ancestors:
Pfeuffer.
line 12
,
a proud Hebrew name:
Ami-chai
means “my people lives.”
1978 Reunion of Palmach Veterans at Ma‘ayan Harod
title
,
Palmach:
The commando units of the Haganah (Israeli underground army), which played a major role in the 1948 War of Independence.
There Are Candles That Remember
line 1
,
candles that remember for a full twenty-four hours:
The
yahrzeit
candle, lit on the anniversary of the death of a close relative.
On the Day My Daughter Was Born No One Died
line 3
,
kohanim:
See note to “Travels of the Last Benjamin of Tudela,” p.
186.
Kohanim
who are Orthodox still observe the ancient law that prohibits their coming into contact with a dead body (see Lev.
21:11).
A Child Is Something Else Again
line 18
,
A child delivers you from death:
See Prov.
10:2, “Righteousness [Heb.
charity] delivereth from death.”
When I Have a Stomachache
line 11
,
the Vision of the Chariot:
Ezek.
1.
I Feel Just Fine in My Pants
line 2
,
the Arch of Titus:
See note to “Elegy,” p.
186.
Jerusalem Is Full of Used Jews
line 3
,
And the eye yearns toward Zion:
A line from “Hatikvah” (“The Hope”), Israel’s national anthem.
An Arab Shepherd Is Searching for His Goat on Mount Zion
line 10
,
Had Gadya:
“The One Kid,” a Passover song in which “the goat that Daddy bought” falls prey to a cat, which is bitten by a dog, which is beaten by a stick, and so forth.
A Great Tranquillity: Questions and Answers
title
,
Questions and Answers:
Refers to the
Responsa,
written replies by learned rabbis to questions in all matters of Jewish life.
1924
line 18
,
May you find lasting peace:
Echoes a line from the funeral prayer “El Malei Rahamim” (“God, Full of Mercy”): “Grant perfect rest beneath the wings of thy Divine Presence.”
What a Complicated Mess
line 23
,
Soltam:
Israel’s leading manufacturer of steel goods.
Almost a Love Poem
lines 8-9
,
mameh, tateh:
Yiddish for Mommy and Daddy.
line 11
,
Hanaleh:
Yiddish diminutive of Hana, the name of Amichai’s wife.
History
line 8
,
A great man;
line 10
,
A wise man;
line 13
,
A man who is content:
These lines play on familiar proverbs.
The Real Hero
line 1
,
The Binding of Isaac:
Gen.
22.
line 7
,
shofars:
See note to “Not Like a Cypress,” p.
185.
Try to Remember Some Details
line 22
,
Korah:
Num.
16.
My Mother Died on Shavuot
line 1
,
Shavuot:
The Feast of Weeks, a Jewish holiday in late spring.
line 2
,
the Counting of the Omer:
The period of 49 days from the second day of Passover through the day before Shavuot.
Late Marriage
lines 21-24
,
The voice of the bridegroom .
.
.
the cities of Yehuda:
Jer.
7: 34: “From the cities of Judah (Heb.
Yehuda) and the streets of Jerusalem .
.
.
the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.”
North of Beersheba
line 7
,
Shema Yisrael:
“Hear, O Israel,” Judaism’s affirmation of faith, proclaiming the unity of God (Deut.
6:4).
I Guard the Children
line 29
,
Ashmedai:
Asmodeus, an evil spirit, chief of the demons in rabbinic legends.
Sandals
line 4
,
tefillin:
Phylacteries (two small boxes containing scriptural passages, fastened with leather straps to the arm and forehead during morning prayers, in fulfillment of Deut.
6:8).
The Course of a Life
line 32
,
sandak:
A relative or close friend of the family who holds the infant on his lap during the ceremony of circumcision.
Yom Kippur
line 18
,
Open the gate to us:
From the Ne’ilah service at the end of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when the gates of prayer are said to close.
The Shore of Ashkelon
line 7
,
Peace, peace to the near and the far:
Cf.
Isa.
57:19.
We Did What We Had To
line 19
,
Without end, to no end:
An ironic reference to the last line of “Adon Olam” (“Lord of the Universe”), a popular synagogue hymn which refers to God as “without beginning, without end.”
line 21
,
Remember, O God:
From Yizkor, the memorial prayer for the souls of departed relatives.
line 24
,
Dew and Showers, He Who Brings Rain:
Prayers recited in the synagogue in spring/summer and fall/winter, respectively.
Acknowledgments
We have been very fortunate in our collaborators on these translations.
Stephen Mitchell worked with Chana Kronfeld, Associate Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley.
She compiled a preliminary list of the poems she felt were strongest and most representative; then read through these and others with him, word by word, explaining nuances, ambiguities, and allusions; and finally, with great sensitivity and meticulousness, reviewed his drafts and made many useful suggestions.
Chana Bloch worked closely with Ariel Bloch, Emeritus Professor of Semitic Linguistics, University of California at Berkeley, who brought to this project his critical acumen, his impressive knowledge of the Hebrew language, and his sensitivity to the nuances of English.
He read each poem with her in Hebrew and offered rigorous criticisms of her English versions; in preparing the forty new translations for this edition, he was a generous collaborator.
She is also indebted to Yehuda Amichai, who graciously went over the translations for the 1986 edition with her in Jerusalem and reviewed the new ones, and to Chana Kronfeld, whose subtle and incisive comments reflected her unsurpassed command of Amichai’s work.
Finally, she wishes to thank Anita Barrows, Shirley Kaufman, and Stanley Moss, who offered many helpful suggestions.
Index of Titles
Advice for Good Love,
119
All These Make a Dance Rhythm,
132
Almost a Love Poem,
153
And as Far as Abu Ghosh,
33
And That Is Your Glory,
11
Arab Shepherd Is Searching for His Goat on Mount Zion, An,
138
As for the World,
29
At the Beach,
175
At the Maritime Museum,
157
At the Monastery of Latroun,
115
At the Seashore,
150
Autobiography, 1952,
2
Autumn Is Near and the Memory of My Parents,
176
Autumn Rain in Tel Aviv,
152
Ballad in the Streets of Buenos Aires,
90
Ballad of the Washed Hair,
20
Before,
33
Beginning of Autumn in the Hills of Ephraim,
178
Between,
173
Body Is the Cause of Love, The,
162
Box, The,
145
Bride Without a Dowry, A,
98
Bull Returns, The,
55
Child Is Something Else Again, A,
133
Children’s Procession,
20
Course of a Life, The,
170
Diameter of the Bomb, The,
118
Dice,
153
Dog After Love, A,
98
Ecology of Jerusalem,
136
Elegy,
58
Elegy on an Abandoned Village,
42
Elegy on the Lost Child, The,
43
End of Summer in the Judean Mountains,
140
Eternal Window, An,
130
Eve of Rosh Hashanah, The,
122
Evidence,
169
Fall in Connecticut,
167
Farewell,
31
Fields of Sunflowers,
181
First Rain on a Burned Car,
181
Flock of Sheep Near the Airport, A,
152
Forgetting Someone,
128
For My Birthday,
15
From the Book of Esther I Filtered the Sediment,
124
Gifts of Love,
90
God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children,
1
God’s Hand in the World,
10
Greatest Desire, The,
172
Great Tranquillity: Questions and Answers, A,
142
Half-Sized Violin,
143
Half the People in the World,
14
Hamadiya,
150
Here,
41
History,
156
Hour of Grace, The,
146
Huleikat—The Third Poem About Dicky,
179
Ibn Gabirol,
6
I Feel Just Fine in My Pants,
135
I Guard the Children,
165
I Know a Man,
173
I Lost My Identity Card,
148
In a Leap Year,
103
In a Right Angle: A Cycle of Quatrains,
27
Inside the Apple,
164
Instead of Words,
89
In the Full Severity of Mercy,
38
In the Garden, at the White Table,
123
In the Middle of This Century,
30
In the Morning It Was Still Night,
133
In the Old City,
136
I’ve Already Been Weaned,
123
I’ve Grown Very Hairy,
97
I Walked Past a House Where I Lived Once,
117
Jacob and the Angel,
40
Jasmine,
154
Jerusalem,
32
Jerusalem Is Full of Used Jews,
135
Jerusalem, 1967,
47
Jerusalem, 1985,
169
Jews in the Land of Israel,
87
Kibbutz Gevaram,
155
Last Word Is the Captain, The,
145
Late Marriage,
163
Letter, A,
102
Letter of Recommendation, A,
101
Like the Inner Wall of a House,
96
Look: Thoughts and Dreams,
7
Lost Objects,
128
Love Is Finished Again,
140
Love Song,
97
Luxury, A,
55
Man in His Life, A,
158
Man Like That on a Bald Mountain in Jerusalem, A,
121
Mayor,
35
Mutual Lullaby, A,
104
My Father in a White Space Suit,
100
My Mother Comes from the Days,
159
My Mother Died on Shavuot,
161
National Thoughts,
57
Near the Wall of a House,
126
1924,
143
1978 Reunion of Palmach Veterans at Ma‘ayan Harod,
129
North of Beersheba,
164
North of San Francisco,
166
Not Like a Cypress,
12
Now in the Storm,
59
Now She’s Breathing,
160
Now the Lifeguards Have All Gone Home,
125
Of Three or Four in a Room,
12
On Mount Muhraka,
148
On Some Other Planet You May Be Right,
151
On the Day I Left,
101
On the Day My Daughter Was Born No One Died,
131
Orchard,
162
Pace Like That, A,
144
Parents Left the Child, The,
139
A Pity.
We Were Such a Good Invention,
57
Place Where We Are Right, The,
34
Poem for Arbor Day,
39
Poems for a Woman,
17
Poem Without an End,
142
Precise Woman, A,
154
Psalm,
91
Quiet Joy, A,
104
Real Hero, The,
156
Relativity,
141
Resurrection,
35
Ruhama,
179
“The Rustle of History’s Wings,” as They Used to Say Then,
128
Sandals,
168
Sea and the Shore, The,
176
Seven Laments for the War-Dead,
92
Shore of Ashkelon, The,
180
Six Poems for Tamar,
4
Smell of Gasoline Ascends in My Nose, The,
3
So I Went Down to the Ancient Harbor,
124
Song of Lies on Sabbath Eve, A,
138
Songs of Continuity,
115
Songs of Zion the Beautiful,
105
Sonnet from the Voyage,
21
Sort of an Apocalypse,
10
Statistics,
146
Such as Sorrow,
32
Summer Begins,
149
Summer Evening in the Jerusalem Mountains,
174
Summer or Its End,
36
Sweet Breakdowns of Abigail, The,
99
There Are Candles That Remember,
131
Threading,
59
Through Two Points Only One Straight Line Can Pass,
13
To a Convert,
99
To Bake the Bread of Yearning,
56
To My Love, Combing Her Hair,
117
Too Many,
39
Tourists,
137
Travels of the Last Benjamin of Tudela,
60
Try to Remember Some Details,
158
Two Disappeared into a House,
173
Two Photographs,
16
U.N.
Headquarters in the High Commissioner’s House in Jerusalem, The,
1
Visit of the Queen of Sheba, The,
21
Way It Was, The,
88
We Did What We Had To,
182
We Loved Here,
8
What a Complicated Mess,
147
What Kind of Man,
171
When a Man’s Far Away from His Country,
121
When I Banged My Head on the Door,
118
When I Have a Stomachache,
134
When I Was a Child,
6
When I Was Young, the Whole Country Was Young,
116
Wildpeace,
88
Yehuda Ha-Levi,
5
Yom Kippur,
177
You Are So Small and Slight in the Rain,
120
You Can Rely on Him,
126
You Carry the Weight of Heavy Buttocks,
119
You Mustn’t Show Weakness,
127
You Too Got Tired,
34