![Page 1: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000):Poet of
Modern Israel
English 232
Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English.
For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for republication.
![Page 2: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Biography
Born 1924 in Germany, Orthodox Jewish family, emigrated to Palestine, 1936.
Served with British Army, WWII. Later with Israeli Army and with Palmach (elite guerilla unit).
Attended Hebrew University while teaching high school
![Page 3: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Career
Wrote poems, plays, novels, children’s books, essays
Nominee for Nobel Prize Translated into 30
languages
![Page 4: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Amichai and the Land
![Page 5: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Arab and Israeli Claims
Map key
Palestinian control
Partial Palestinian control
Israeli control
Golan Heights
West Bank
![Page 6: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
State of Israel -- 1948
Palestine was Turkish when Jewish settlers began coming in late 1800s. British liberated it in WW I, 1917. Issued Balfour Declaration of British support for Jewish homeland.
UN Partition Plan, 1947 Israel established May 14, 1948. Attacked the next
day by Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan. Arab-Israeli Wars took place 1956, 1967, 1973.
![Page 7: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
“If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem”
If I forget thee, Jerusalem,
Then let my right be forgotten.
![Page 8: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
“Jerusalem”On a roof in the Old City,
Laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight:
The white sheet of a woman who is my enemy,
![Page 9: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
“Tourists”
They weep at the beautiful prowess of our boys,
Lust after our tough girls
And hang up their underwear
To dry quickly
In cool blue bathrooms
![Page 10: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
“An Arab Shepherd Is Searching for His Goat on Mount Zion”
And on the opposite mountain I am searching
For my little boy.
An Arab shepherd and a Jewish father
Both in their temporary failure.
![Page 11: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Amichai on Writing
Everyone can make poetry. It begins with a child’s naming things, as Adam and Eve named the animals. “Poetry was present in the Garden of Eden.”
All poetry is political, even love poetry. But he hates “poster-like” political poetry.
![Page 12: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Amichai on Writing “Poetry is everywhere.
Everything is poetry, to me.” Amichai once said that he wrote
“in order to comfort myself. About life, about wars, about difficulty. I write poems after things are finished. During war and love, poems are not written.”
![Page 13: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Amichai’s subject: human situation
Relations between people, between people and God
Even use kitsch [art that shows off its bad taste; shabby or vulgar art]. “Real life is kitsch.” Sunsets, birth, death, funerals are kitsch. The poet is “not to run away from kitschy situations but use it in a dry and down-to-earth way.”
![Page 14: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Amichai on peace “I would rather fight for
non-war.” The term peace is too easily said. “Peace is something for which people were ready to go out and kill.” Leaders have always claimed, “This war is for peace.”
![Page 15: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
The role of the poet is "to name each thing, each feeling, each experience, plainly and accurately, without pretense."
![Page 16: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Sources
Mubarak statement, links to maps: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/06/03/bush.arabs/index.html
http://www.snunit.k12.il/shireshet/amichai/ http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/amichai1.gif http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/photos/
APR/30.html Amichai’s view on writing and poetry are taken from his
interview in the Lannan Poetry Series http://www.uvm.edu/~sgutman/Amichai.htm
![Page 17: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Sources
http://www.tekla-szymanski.com/engl6amichai.html http://www.marlbororeview.com/feature.html http://info.jpost.com/2000/Supplements/Amihai/4.html http://gbh2000.tripod.com/pasttripping/id15.html http://www.jafi.org.il/education/lifecycle/bneimitsva/j.html http://biblia.com/jesusm/places.htm http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/
mmarkowski/212/2/wwall.html
![Page 18: Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) : Poet of Modern Israel English 232 Copyright 2003, ACU Department of English. For Fair Use only. Images are not cleared for](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062421/56649e415503460f94b33b97/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)