Read The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai Online
Authors: Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell
The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai
THE SELECTED POETRY OF YEHUDA AMICHAI
LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE EAST
a series of fiction, poetry, and memoirs in translation
Memoirs from the Women’s Prison
by Nawal El Saadawi
translated by Marilyn Booth
Arabic Short Stories
translated by Denys Johnson-Davies
The Innocence of the Devil
by Nawal El Saadawi
translated by Sherif Hetata
Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982
by Mahmoud Darwish
translated by Ibrahim Muhawi
Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery
by Bahaa’ Taher
translated by Barbara Romaine
The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai
newly revised and expanded edition
translated by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell
The Selected Poetry of Dan Pagis
translated by Stephen Mitchell
THE SELECTED POETRY OF
YEHUDA AMICHAI
Edited and Translated from the Hebrew by
CHANA BLOCH AND STEPHEN MITCHELL
With a New Foreword by C.
K.
Williams
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley
Los Angeles
London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
The poems in this collection were originally published in Hebrew.
Some of these translations have been published in
The American Poetry Review, The Atlantic, The Berkeley Monthly, Crosscurrents, Delos, Field, Ironwood, Judaism, Midstream, Mississippi Review, The Nation, New Letters, The New Republic, The Paris Review, Partisan Review, Present Tense, Quarry West, Shenandoah, Threepenny Review, Tikkun, Translation, The Virginia Quarterly Review,
and
Zyzzyva,
as well as in the anthologies
Voices within the Ark,
edited by Howard Schwartz and Anthony Rudolf (Avon, 1980),
Without a Single Answer,
edited by Elaine Starkman and Leah Schweitzer (Judah L.
Magnes Museum, 1990), and
Literary Olympians 1992
, edited by Elizabeth Bartlett (Ford-Brown, 1992).
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Ingram Merrill Foundation and to the National Foundation for Jewish Culture for their financial assistance.
The hardcover first edition of this book was published in 1986 by Harper & Row, Publishers; First California edition published 1996.
© 1986, 1996, 2013 by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell
ISBN: 978-0-520-27583-6
eISBN: 9780520954441
Amichai, Yehuda.
[Poems.
English.
Selections]
The selected poetry of Yehuda Amichai / edited and translated from the Hebrew by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell.
— Newly rev.
and expanded ed.
p.
cm.
— (Literature of the Middle East)
Previously published: New York : HarperCollins, 1992.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-520-20538-3 (pbk.: alk.
paper)
1.
Amichai, Yehuda—Translations into English.
I.
Bloch, Chana, 1940- .
II.
Mitchell, Stephen, 1943- III.
Title.
IV.
Series.
PJ5054.A65A2 1996
892.4’16 — dc20
96-18580
Printed in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Rolland Enviro100, a 100% post-consumer fiber paper that is FSC certified, deinked, processed chlorine-free, and manufactured with renewable biogas energy.
It is acid-free and EcoLogo certified.
Contents
edited and translated by Stephen Mitchell
From
Now and in Other Days
(1955)
God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children
The U.N.
Headquarters in the High Commissioner’s House in Jerusalem
The Smell of Gasoline Ascends in My Nose
Through Two Points Only One Straight Line Can Pass
The Visit of the Queen of Sheba
From
In a Right Angle: A Cycle of Quatrains
From
Now in the Storm, Poems 1963-1968
A Pity.
We Were Such a Good Invention
Travels of the Last Benjamin of Tudela
edited and translated by Chana Bloch
From
Not for the Sake of Remembering
(1971)
Ballad in the Streets of Buenos Aires
From
Behind All This a Great Happiness Is Hiding
(1976)
Seven Laments for the War-Dead
Like the Inner Wall of a House
The Sweet Breakdowns of Abigail
My Father in a White Space Suit
From
Songs of Zion the Beautiful
When I Was Young, the Whole Country Was Young
I Walked Past a House Where I Lived Once
When I Banged My Head on the Door
You Carry the Weight of Heavy Buttocks
You Are So Small and Slight in the Rain
A Man Like That on a Bald Mountain in Jerusalem
When a Man’s Far Away from His Country
In the Garden, at the White Table
From the Book of Esther I Filtered the Sediment
So I Went Down to the Ancient Harbor
Now the Lifeguards Have All Gone Home
From
A Great Tranquillity: Questions and Answers
(1980)
“The Rustle of History’s Wings,” as They Used to Say Then
1978 Reunion of Palmach Veterans at Ma’ayan Harod
There Are Candles That Remember
On the Day My Daughter Was Born No One Died
In the Morning It Was Still Night
A Child Is Something Else Again
Jerusalem Is Full of Used Jews
An Arab Shepherd Is Searching for His Goat on Mount Zion
End of Summer in the Judean Mountains
A Great Tranquillity: Questions and Answers
On Some Other Planet You May Be Right
A Flock of Sheep Near the Airport
From
From Man Thou Art and Unto Man Shalt Thou Return
(1985)
From
The Fist, Too, Was Once the Palm of an Open Hand, and Fingers
(1989)
Summer Evening in the Jerusalem Mountains
Autumn Is Near and the Memory of My Parents
Beginning of Autumn in the Hills of Ephraim