Cody G. Fuston Dr.

Saab CRS MLS610/TPCS: Current Problems in the Middle East March 16, 2011 Response Paper # 1: Amichais Poems Word Count: 944 The Dichotomy of a Jew Poet Yehuda Amichai, born in 1924 in Germany as a Jew, later fled Adolf Hitler to Palestine in 1936; he eventually goes on to fight in World War II (WWII). Amichai would also later become a naturalized citizen of Israel. When one dissects the literary works of a writer, he must continually take into account the history of the writer which directly impacts the literature produced by the writer. Amichai grew up in a time where being a Jew was a death sentence, in regions where Jews were despised and attacked for their ethnic and religious heritage, and such a history most certainly would preserve his Hebrew poetry in a complicated religious dichotomy of love and hate, discovery and loss, and always swiveling between the religious and sacrilegious. Amichais dichotomy as a Jewish poet owes itself to the nature of the Jewish history which is in a constant state of looking back and moving forward, praying and cursing. Firstly, consider that Amichai wrote his poetry in a modern form of Hebrew, rather than the classical version, which would later be translated into English. Hebrew is often associated as a highly religious language, despite the variations. Regardless, many poems by Amichai would be deemed sacrilegious, especially since they were written in the Jewish language first rather than non-Jewish languages and used defiant images not completely accepted by the Jewish community. Baruch Kurzweil, one critic, stated the importance of the Hebrew language in reference to Amichais particular imagery in poetry: [T]hat the issue under discussion demands from a poet writing in the Hebrew language. If something similar had been written by a gentile we would be complaining about wicked antisemitism (qtd. in Milman 100). Such anti-Semitic

Fuston 2 imagery can be found in Amichais collection of poetry Open, Closed, Open. In one section of the collection, Amichai regards God as a father of orphans who must Cry / and not cry, not forget and not remember and a misguided king who gives the Jews, Gods chosen people, bread and circuses the bread of memory and the circuses of forgetting (stanza 7, lines 5-6, 910, p 41). Amichais portrayal of God as an absent father and a callous king who both rewards and punishes can be directly associated with the persecution of the Jews in the Holocaust, which the poet directly experienced, and the establishment of Israel shortly thereafter. Amichai would also refer to and illustrate God as steam, a clever magician, and Change and the Jewish community as followers of torment who ask: What summons us to prayer? The wail (stanza 11, line 9, p 139). Amichai continually expresses the pain of the diaspora, both in the time of the Tanach and during WWII and ceaselessly pleading, Why Jerusalem, why me (stanza 25, line 1, p 144)? Such boldness from a Jew to question God, however, for the Jewish community, including such a description written in Hebrew about their Holy Father as noted by Kurzweil, could be deemed a sacrilegious account of their ordeal rather than a respectful depiction from a faithful believer. Notwithstanding Amichais borderline blasphemy, he would also exhibit the side of a lover in his poetry and establishes himself as one of the most outstanding of Israel's postindependence poets (Milman 102). A tormented spirit often produces such aesthetic splendor and forces traditions to revaluate common perceptions over any particular subject. According to Glenda Abramson one of the primary topics of [Amichais] poetry is the alteration of love within a variety of contexts: time, war, youth and maturity, memory and religion (221). Just as Amichai wrote sacrilegiously in Open, Closed, Open, he also wrote from the vision of a Romantic, finding love even in the unlikeliest places. Amichai writes of the dichotomy he suffers and rejoices within: If there are weeping willows there ought to be / joyful willows and hoping

Fuston 3 willows too, whose branches reach up (stanza 12, lines 10-11, p 123). Sadness is parallel to hope, a Wordsworthian theme of Hope both despairing and beckoning, while Amichai lovingly mourns, O Lord, out of the depths have I cried unto thee (stanza 8, line 4, p 138). Real love, as Amichai indirectly describes it, is a love which survives separation and the pain brought on by such a loss (Abramson 234). What the Romantics did for England and America in the 19th century, Amichai did for the Jewish community all across the world in the 20th century. To question God was not to doubt God but to remember and forget the tribulations suffered by the Jews and their love for their Holy Father. Amichais poetry holds a dichotomy of God, which to some could be found as profanity while to others could be found as devotion. However such a division of God exists in Judaism, professing God as both a father of the Jews and their King, a religious and political figure. Amichai illustrates how God cannot be controlled by the wills and wants of mankind, but is aloof and sufficiently present always and never. Amichai describes this internal conflict best: my griefs and my peace. I go against the longings and the prayers This could be the start of a new religion (stanza 19, lines 12, 15). And constant historical revisions throughout the Jewish community have been ever present as they humbly hope for the return of the Messiah who will establish a new kingdom, both politically and religiously. Amichais description of God, in sum, could be explained as both a loving father who stands aside to allow his child to mature and learn and a king who reigns with a firm but gracious hand, never breaking but always bending at just the right time.

Bibliography

Fuston 4 Abramson, Glenda. The Love Poetry of Yehuda Amichai. AJS Review, Vo. 11, No. 2, Autumn, 1986. 221-247. Print. Amichai, Yehuda. Open, Closed, Open. New York: Harcourt, 2000. Print. Milman, Yoseph. Sacrilegious Imagery in Yehuda Amichais Poetry. AJS Review, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1995. 99-121. Print. Yehuda Amichai. Poets.org. Poets.org: From the Academy of American Poets. Web. 15 March 2011. < http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/125>