Yehuda Amichai ~ Israeli Poet

Yehuda Amichai (May 3, 1924 – September 22, 2000) is one of Israel’s most beloved Hebrew poets. Because he was the first to write poetry in modern Hebrew, his influence in Israeli literature is enormous.

Amichai was born Ludwig Pfeuffer in Wurzburg, Germany. He grew up in a traditionally Orthodox family. As a young boy, and as Hitler was rising to power, his family made aliyah to the Land of Israel, which was then under the British Mandate. Later, he became active in the pre-cursor to the Israel Defense Forces. He fought in World War II in the British Army in the Jewish Brigade.

Amicha’s poetry touches Israeli life and issues. His poems often reflect the conflict of the secular and the religious.

Amachai died in 2000 at age 76.

Below is one of Amachai's poems.

Wildpeace

Not the peace of a cease-fire
not even the vision of the wolf and the lamb,
but rather
as in the heart when the excitement is over
and you can talk only about a great weariness.
I know that I know how to kill, that makes me an adult.
And my son plays with a toy gun that knows
how to open and close its eyes and say Mama.
A peace
without the big noise of beating swords into ploughshares,
without words, without
the thud of the heavy rubber stamp: let it be
light, floating, like lazy white foam.
A little rest for the wounds - who speaks of healing?
(And the howl of the orphans is passed from one generation
to the next, as in a relay race:
the baton never falls.)

Let it come
like wildflowers,
suddenly, because the field
must have it: wildpeace.


Translated by Chana Bloch