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The Love Poetry of Yehuda Amichai

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Glenda Abramson
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Extract

If Yehuda Amichai does not use as topics for his work all three of those that Dante considered fundamental to poetry, salus, venus, and virtus, the second, venus, appears as a pervasive theme, perhaps the most pervasive throughout his work, revealing a consistency of idea which has unfailingly moved through the structured verse of the early volumes to the less tersely conceived poems of later years. One of the primary topics of his poetry is the alteration of love within a variety of contexts: time, war, youth and maturity, memory and religion. Love is the framework in which most of the events of the poetry take place, and it is itself celebrated or mourned in a number of long lyric cycles, particularly in the early books, written between 1948 and 1968.

Type
Articles
Information
AJS Review , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , Fall 1986 , pp. 221 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 1986

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References

Amichai's poems have been quoted from the following editions, all published by Schocken Books: Shirim 1948–1962 (1967); Akhshav ba-Ra'ash (hereafter cited as Akhshav) (1968); Ve-Lo al Menal Lizkor (hereafter Ve-Lo) (1971); Me-Ahorei Kol Zeh Mistater Osher Gadol (hereafter Me-Ahorei) (1974); Ha-Zeman (1977); Shahah Gedolah (hereafter Shalvah) (1980); She'at ha-Hesed (hereafter Ha- Hesed) (1982). All translations are the author's own unless otherwise specified.

1. “Ma?ati otakh, ” MeAfiorei, p. 109.

2. worthy, JonStall, ed., The Penguin Book of Love Poetry (New York, 1984), p. 23.Google Scholar

3. ayin tahat ayin An eye for an eye gufekh tahat gufi Your body with [for] mine ha-kol patuah Everything open: ha-aron, sodekh, pi. The Ark, your mystery My mouth. (Shirim, p. 207.)

4. “Hayi Shalom, ” Shirim, p. 155.

5. Julian Lovelock, ed., Songs and Sonnets (Casebook Series), p. 23.

6. “Elohim Meraljem al Yaldei ha-Gan, ” Shirim, p. 247.

7. “A Pity-We Were a Good Invention, ” in Yehuda Amichai: Selected Poems, trans. Assia Gutmann, Penguin Modern European Poets (1971), p. 25.

8. “Aval Aleinu le-Shabbealj, ” shirim, p. 247.

9. John Donne, “The Bracelet, ” Elegy 11.

10. Ve-Lo, p. 116. Based on Deuteronomy 6:5.“Massot Binyamin ha-Aharon mi-Tudelah, ” Akhshav pp. 97–139 (hereafter“Binyamin”).

11. Ve-Lo, p. 106.

12. Ibid., p. 107.

13. Ibid.

14. “Asinu et Zeh, ” Akhshav, p.88.

15. Shirim, pp. 33–37.

16. “Shishah Shirim le-Tamar, ” Ibid., pp. 23–25.

17. “Shir ha-Rakefet, ” Ibid., p. 73.

18. “Ahavnu Kan, ” Ibid., pp. 42–59.

19. “Shel Malkhut She'avrah, ” Akhshav, p. 87.

20. “Od Pa'am, ” Shirim, p. 215.

21. “Binyamin, ” Akhshav, p. 121.

22. “Shirei Akhziv, ” Ibid., p. 199.

23. Trilling, Lionel, “Of This Time, Of This Place, ” in Short Story Study, ed. A.S., Smith and W. Mason (Edward Arnold, 1961).Google Scholar

24. “Bi-Rehov ha-Rav Kook, ” Akhshav, p. 51.

25. “Tayeret, ” Ibid., p. 193.

26. “Rikkud Ahar Ha?ot, ” Ve-Lo, p. 25.

27. “Mar ve-Nimhar, ” Akhshav, p. 26.

28. “Le-Daber al Shinuyim Hayah le-Daber Ahavah, ” Me-Ahorei, p. 95.

29. “Yom Hatunah, ” Ibid., p. 59.

30. “Tiyul le-Makom Yafeh, ” Ibid., p. 128.

31. “Shirei Buenos Aires, ” Ve-Lo.

32. “Nisyonot le-Taer Guf, ” Ibid., p. 121.

33. Ha-Zeman, p. 63.

34. “Sha'ar Akhziv, ” Akhshav, pp. 194 ff.

35. “Shir Ahavah, ” Me-afiorei, p. 34.

36. “Bizmani, Bimkomekh” Akhsav,p.27

37. “Shisah shirim le-tamar'” Shirim, p.25

38. See n.28.

39. “Hi Amarah Lo la-Vo Od” Me-Ahoreip.113

40. “Shir Politi” Ha-Hesed, p.31

41. “Ani Yoshev le-Yad ha-Shulban, ” Ibid., p. 60.

42. “Akhziv 1973, ” Me-Afiorei, p. 138.

43. “Akedah, ” Ibid.

44. Ha-Zeman, p. 74.

45. “Air Hostess, ” trans, with Tudor Parfitt, Great Tranquillity (New York: Harper & Row, 1983), p. 27.

46. “Song, ” trans. Ted Hughes, Amen (Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 47.

47. “Tekhnikah shel Ahavah, ” Ha-Hesed, p. 81.

48. “Ahavah Idialist, ” Me-Afiorei, p. 144.

49. “Straight from Your Prejudice.” trans, with Tudor Parfitt, Great Tranquillity, p. 77.

50. “Tayeret, ” Akhshav. p. 193.

51. “Bittul ha-Shekhihah le-Zeman Ka?ar, ” Ha-Hesed, p. 28.

52. “Ani Ro'eh Penei Aherim Rabim, ” Ibid., p. 121.