Creator Bio
Yehuda Amichai
1924–2000
Born Ludwig Pfeuffer in Germany, Yehuda Amichai was a poet, author, translator, and playwright. His family left Germany when he was eleven and settled in Jerusalem. During World War II, Amichai served with the British army; he also fought in Israel’s War of Independence. Amichai wrote poetry, prose fiction, children’s books, translations, and plays, often playing everyday language against that of the Hebrew Bible and Jewish liturgy. Love and war were central themes of his writing. Amichai received the Israel Prize in 1982.
Content by Yehuda Amichai
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Love in Reverse
Early in the morning he went out to carry out the assignment which he had been given. Jerusalem seemed to be tired and her hair was unkempt. The first revellers had reached the streets. One window was…
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God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children
God takes pity on kindergarten children,Less on schoolchildren.On grownups, He won't take pity anymore.He leaves them alone.Sometime they have to crawl on all foursIn the blazing sand,To get to the…
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Seven Laments for the War-Dead
This series of poems mourns those lost in war through intimate scenes of grief, memory, and irony.
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Tourists
So condolence visits is what they’re here for,sitting around at the Holocaust Memorial, putting on a serious faceat the Wailing Wall,laughing behind heavy curtains in hotel rooms.They get themselves…