1. See his books of poetry, from Pirḥey esh [Flowers of fire] (Merhavya, 1949) to Ha-ba aḥaray [The one after me] (Tel Aviv, 1994); his novel 'Isqat ha-shoqolad (Tel Aviv, 1965; 2nd ed., 1995; English translation by Simckes, Seymour, The Chocolate Deal, New York, 1968)Google Scholar is devoted to the almost impossible attempt to observe the remains left by the Holocaust through the eyes of the victims. See also his book Mul ta ha-zekhukhit [The glass booth] (Tel Aviv, 1962) containing his newspaper essays on the trial of Adolf Eichmann; and his documentary films The 81st Blow (VHS video edition, Ergo, 1992), Flames in the Ashes (VHS video edition, Ergo, 1992), and Last Sea (VHS video edition, Ergo, 1997). The English reader can now find a fine selection from Gouri's poetry in Chyet, Stanley F., trans., Words in My Lovesick Blood (Detroit, 1996). This collection includes several texts concerning Gouri's traiUnatic encounter with Holocaust survivors during his 1947 mission to Europe (pp. 6–7, 28–33, 62–65, 70–71, 80–81, 104–105, 122–123,228–231).Google Scholar

2. Flowers of Fire (Merhavya, 1949); Until Dawn (Tel Aviv, 1950); and Signet Poems (Tel Aviv, 1954).

3. The Investigation, the Story of Re'u'el (Tel Aviv, 1980).

4. See Mintz, Alan, “Introduction: Survivors and Bystanders” in: Hurban: Responses to Catastrophe in Hebrew Literature (New York, 1984), pp. 158–164;Google Scholar and Ibid., “The Uneasy Burden,” pp. 239–269. In the third part of his book, especially the last chapter, Mintz examines the beginnings and the main literary manifestations concerning the Holocaust in Hebrew literature in the 1950s and the 1960s: Uri Zvi Greenberg's Reḥovot ha-nahar [Streets of the river], pp. 165–202; Aharon Appelfeld's novels, pp. 203–238; Hanoch Bartov, Pi’'ey bagrut (English trans, by Segal, David S., The Brigade, Philadelphia, 1968);Google Scholar Gouri's The Glass Booth; The Chocolate Deal (see above, n. 1), pp. 239–244,256–258; Amichai, YehudaLome-'akhshav, lo mi-kan (1963) (English trans, by Shlomo Katz, Not of this lime, Not of this Place, New York, 1968), pp. 248–251;Google Scholar Yoram Kaniuk, Adam ben kelev (1969) (English trans, by Seymour Simckes, Adam Resurrected, New York, 1971), pp. 251–256. Concerning Gouri's writings, Mintz, like most of Gouri's critics, did not consider his poetry on the Holocaust written before The Glass Booth and The Chocolate Deal, in Pirhey esh (1949), Shirey ḥotam (1954), and Shoshanat ruḥot [Compass rose] (Tel Aviv, 1960). See also Alter's, Robert essay “Conftonting the Holocaust,” in After the Tradition (New York, 1969), pp. 163–180.Google Scholar Alter, like Mintz after him, deals with Gouri's The Chocolate Deal (pp. 171–175), together with Amichai's novel Lo me-'akhshav, lo mi-kan (pp. 166–170) and Bartov's Pis'ey bagrut (pp. 175–180), without mentioning Gouri's attempts to deal with the Holocaust in his poetry. On The Chocolate Deal in comparison with Amichai (Ibid.), Bartov (Ibid.), Amotz, Dan Ben (To Remember, to Forget) (English trans, by Zeva Shapiro, Philadelphia, 1973),Google Scholar and Kaniuk (Ibid.), see also Alexander, Edward, “Between Diaspora and Zion: Israeli Holocaust Fiction,” in The Resonance of Dust, (Columbus, 1979), pp. 73–120,Google Scholar and also, Yuter, Alan J., “Haim Gouri,” in The Holocaust in Hebrew Literature (New York, 1983), pp. 69–71.Google Scholar

5. See, e.g., Segev, Tom, The Seventh Million, trans. Haim Waltzman (New York, 1993), pp. 129–135;Google ScholarZertal, Idith, The Gold of the Jews (Hebrew), (Tel Aviv, 1996),Google Scholar forthcoming in English as From Catastrophe to Power: The Holocaust Survivors and the Immigration to Israel, 1945–1948. See also Almog, Oz: The Sabra; A Profile (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv, 1997), pp. 137–148Google Scholar

6. Shaked, Gershon, brew Narrative Fiction, 1880–1980 (Hebrew), vol. 4 (Tel Aviv, 1993), pp. 14–45.Google Scholar

7. Compass Rose (Tel Aviv, 1960).

8. See Reuven Shoham, “From the Naive to the Nostalgic in the Poetry of Haim Gouri,” Prooftexts, forthcoming.

9. Galia, Yardeni, “With Haim Gouri,” in 16 Conversations with Writers (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv, 1962), pp. 167–181, 173–174.Google Scholar

10. Compass Rose, p. 59.

11. See, e.g., Bartov's novel Pis 'ey bagrut (above, n. 4).

12. See, e.g., his lively response to Idith Zertal's research: The Gold of the Jews (above, n. 5). In this essay, “On Books and What There Is Among Them” (Hebrew), in Alpaiym, no. 14 (1997): 9–30, Gouri responds harshly to Zertal's main hypothesis that Ben–Gurion brutally exploited the survivors in bis struggle against Britain to win over public opinion in Europe and the United States; and he rejects the idea that the Yishuv and the sabras patronized the Holocaust survivors. He cites much evidence from The Brigade by Bartov, a sabra like himself, who also rejects the new post-Zionist ideas.

13. Haim Gouri, “Beguf rishon rabbim” [First-person plural], Ma 'ariv, May 10, 1978.

14. This was stated in an interview with the poet Yotam Ha-Reuveni on the publication of his book Ayuma [Terrible] (Tel Aviv, 1979), the title taken from Song of Songs 6:4, 10: “Comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army.” Davar, February 23, 1979.

15. Miri Paz, “Srudim mi-sedek ve-sigaryot” [Hoarse from justice and cigarettes], interview with Haim Gouri following the publication of Ha-ba aḥarai. Davar, January 21, 1994.

16. Reuven Shoham, “Be-siman kutonet ha-pasim” [Under the sign of the coat of many colors: Study of the portrait of the speaker in Flowers of Fire by Haim Gouri], Meḥkarei yerushalayim be-sijrut 'ivrit (Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature) 12 (1990): 277–304.

17. Ibid., pp. 205–215.

18. Ibid., p. 211.

19. Benjamin Tamuz, “World's Number Two Canaanite,” in Chertok, Haim: We Are All Close (conversations with Israeli writers) (New York, 1989), pp. 105–117.Google Scholar The poet Yonatan Ratosh was the leader and ideological “prophet” of the Canaanite movement in the 1940s and 1950s in Eretz Israel. After the War of Independence a very small group of young people gathered around him and around the periodical Alef, edited by Ratosh, and after him by the poet Aharon Amir. Twenty-three issues were published between 1948 and 1953. The group called itself “The Young 'Ivrim,” but the poet Avraham Shlonski gave it the pejorative name Kna'anim. Ideologically and poetically, this movement wanted to renew the most archaic elements of the ancient cultures that had existed in the biblical time and area. The most famous of its members were the novelist Binyamin Tamuz, the poet Aharon Amir, Uzzi Oman (Ratosh's brother), the sculpture Yitzhak Danziger, Ezra Zohar, Amos Keinan, and Boaz and Yair Evron. On Ratosh and the Canaanite ideology in English, see Yoram Brunovsky, “Yonathan Ratosh: Poet and Ideologist,” Modern Hebrew Literature, Summer 1984, pp. 5–12; Diamond, James S., Homeland or Holy Land? The Canaanite Critique of Israel (Bloomington, 1986). The name of Gouri's hero, Re'u'el, means “comrade of God,” re'a shel ha-'el. But he also has an almost “Canaanite” origin according to the mentions of the name in the Old Testament: Re'u'el is the name of Esau's son (Genesis 36:10); also of the father of Zipporah, Moses's wife (Exodus 2:17, Numbers 10:9), and it is one of the names of Benjamin's son (1 Chronicles 9:9). This name attests to its basic connection to the Canaanite movement.Google Scholar

20. Gouri Haim, Ma 'ariv, July 23, 1976.

21. Nili Carmel-Flumin, “Mi-Pirḥey esh le-Ayuma,” meeting with Haim Gouri following the publication of his new book of poems, Ayuma, in Yedi'ot aharonot, February 9, 1979. These statements are repeated in Ha-ḥaqira (p. 211). There the investigators actually accuse Re'u'el of plain antisemitism: “You choose evil and the repulsive and the ugly [in reference to the description of “Diaspora-like” Jewish figures]. This is an antisemitic trait. There is within you a full measure of self-hatred. You are ashamed of yourself, your people, your brothers. You would like to be someone else” (p. 215). In the interview with Miri Paz (n. 11), the poet related how he was cured of the “Canaanite virus” after the encounter with the survivors of the extermination. “The encounter constituted another essential element in my identity. In Budapest I chanced upon a memorial service for the victims of the extermination. A certain rabbi, who spoke Hungarian, recited in the manner of the expositors a Hebrew verse: 'I seek my brothers' (Genesis 34:16). Around me I heard sounds of weeping, then I recalled Joseph in search of his brothers, the shepherds in the Valley of Dothan. I became a member of this body that began there and continued as far as the gray streets of Central Europe.”

22. 'Ad 'alot ha-shaḥar is Gouri's war diary, written during and after the battles in the Negev during the War of Independence. Its last part is the poem cycle Kelulot [Wedding].

23. For a wide-ranging discussion of the mythical romantic quest in these collections, see Shoham, , “Be-siman kutonent ha-pasim.” Northrop Frye, in The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance (Cambridge, Mass., 1976), pp. 1–32, argues that from a literary poetic viewpoint there is no difference between a mythical tale and a romance tale.Google Scholar

24. See Campbell, Joseph, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (New York, 1956);Google ScholarRaglan, Lord, The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama (New York, 1956);Google ScholarFrye, Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton, N.J., 1957), pp. 186–205.Google Scholar

25. Frye, Anatomy ofCriticism, pp. 187–195.

26. Gouri, Pirḥey esh, p. 17.

27. See Genesis 37:15–16 and n. 17 above.

28. Translation by Chyet, Stanley F., in Words in My Lovesick Blood. (Detroit, 1996), p.Google Scholar

29. Miron, Dan, “Time Marching On and Pointless Death: On Flowers of Fire by Haim Gouri,” in Before the Silent Brother. Studies in the Poetry of the War of Independence (Hebrew) (Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, 1992), pp. 197–234, 222–226.Google Scholar

30. Gouri deleted this ending in the second edition of the book (1961, p. 25).

31. Locks of hair are traditionally associated with heroism, e.g., the case of Samson. For ironic variations on this subject, see Bialik's, “Megilat ha-esh” [The scroll of fire] in Kol kitvey H. N. Bialik [Collected works] (Tel Aviv, 1971), pp. 102–109;Google Scholar and Amichay's poem “Ani rotse la-mut 'al mitati” [“I wish to die in my bed] in Shirim, 1948–1962 [(Poems, 1948–1962] (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, 1963), p. 82. The locks of the speaker that are ruffled in the wind in Gouri's poem are free of all irony, and thereby he establishes a link with other heroes with a forelock and curly hair in the War of Independence literature, e.g., the character of Uri in Hu halakh ba-sadot [He walked in the fields) by Moshe Shamir (Merhavia, 1947), who has “a lock of hair, a nomad's turban, a knapsack” (p. 9). Omer Hillel in his poem “ 'Al mekhonit mas'a doge bi-khvish Haifa-Tel Aviv” [On a Dodge truck on the Haifa-Tel Aviv road] in Eretz ha-sohora'yim [Land of noon] (Tel Aviv, 1957), p. 28, has his speaker say: “Love your lock of hair, black or blond, which laughed in the wind!” This subject is expanded in Maoz, Rivka“Transformations of the Lock of Hair in Israeli Literature” (Hebrew), Moznaim 62 (1988): 50–56.Google Scholar

32. Gouri, Shirey hotam, pp. 98–102

33. And see the following poems in 'Ad 'alot hashahar. ” 'Anat” [Anat], pp. 9–10; “Kelulot” [Wedding], pp. 131–122; “Ke-'alumat hitim” [Like a sheaf of com], pp. 136–139; and also in Shirey ḥotam: "Ba-derekh la-bustan” [On the way to the fruit garden], pp. 12–13; “Zikhrekh ba-bustan” [Your memory in the Fruit Garden], pp. 14–15; “Apraqdan” [Supine], pp. 16–17; “Bat-galim” [Daughter of waves], pp. 21–22; and especially Part IV, pp. 73–92.

34. Shirey ḥotam: “Ha-zar le-yadekh” [The stranger by your side], p. 101

35. See the poem “Betekh” [Your house], Ibid., p. 25.

36. Bialik, Collected Works (Tel Aviv, 1971), p. 97.

37. Tchernichowsky, Shirim [Poems] (Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, 1950), p. 642.

38. Neumarket, Paul, “An Orgy of Self-Abandonment” (studies on the war motif in modern literature) (Hebrew), Qeshet, no. 39 (Spring 1968), pp. 63–74.Google Scholar

39. Ha-ḥaqira (1980), p. 215.

40. See his poems “Oto 'erev be-Mabion” [This evening in Mabion] and “Odysseus” in Shosanat ruhot, pp. 85–86, 115–116.

41. The Chocolate Deal (Tel Aviv, 1965; 2nd ed. 1995) (see above, n. 1).

42. A selection of his newspaper reports were collected in his book Mul ta ha-zekhukhit (see above, n. 1).

43. Ibid., p. 243; quoted from Alan Mintz, Hurban, pp. 239–240.

44. Ibid., pp. 240–243.

45. Mul ta ha-zekhukhit, pp. 241–242. Mintz translation, Ibid., p. 243.

46. Mintz, Hurban, pp. 256–258.