PerfectlyWritePoetry: Another Poet. But This One’s King!

Saturday, 6 February 2016

Another Poet. But This One’s King!

I’ve been astounded to discover that modern Israeli high school students know little or nothing of their country’s major poets. This surely leaves a gaping and distressing hole in their education.

After all, Chaim Nachman Bailik’s children’s Chanucah poem prompted the name of the 2008-2009 war while it’s said that Yehuda Amichai is the most translated Hebrew poet since King David. What’s more, there can be no argument about the origins of Amichai’s majestic verse.

So we’ve been given an enormous treat with the publication of what is described as the largest-ever English-language collection of Amichai’s work.

The former Ludwig Pfeuffer fled with his family from Nazi Germany to Mandate Palestine and explained during an interview with the Paris Review how the chance discovery of a Faber anthology of modern verse caused him to think seriously about writing poetry. This, he said, was how the likes of Thomas, Eliot and Auden became important to him and I say, doubtless how he eventually forged a strong bond with English poet laureate Ted Hughes who translated some of his work.

It must be an unsought tribute to editor Professor Robert Alter and his translators that the publication of this collection has itself produced a wealth of polished criticism and background feature material. I’ve had an absorbing few hours reading everything!

I was going to end here, simply by quoting below one of Amichai’s best known and beloved pieces, an ironic version of the El Malei Rachamim memorial prayer usually recited at funerals and on solemn religious holidays.

But then I came across a blog written by young US composer, Mohammed Fairouz who quotes the poem in Hebrew and English, giving readers English language notes explaining the original Hebrew prayer and Amichai’s wry version of it. This has been the best treat of all!

“God Full Of Mercy

“God-Full-of-Mercy, the prayer for the dead.
If God was not full of mercy,
Mercy would have been in the world,
Not just in Him.
I, who plucked flowers in the hills
And looked down into all the valleys,
I, who brought corpses down from the hills,
Can tell you that the world is empty of mercy.
I, who was King of Salt at the seashore,
Who stood without a decision at my window,
Who counted the steps of angels,
Whose heart lifted weights of anguish
In the horrible contests.

“I, who use only a small part
Of the words in the dictionary.

“I, who must decipher riddles
I don't want to decipher,
Know that if not for the God-full-of-mercy
There would be mercy in the world,
Not just in Him.”

(Translated from the Hebrew by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav)

** The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai edited by Professor Robert Alter, is published in hardback ($24.47; £16.87; NIS 95.01 ) and Kindle ($16.99; £11.71; NIS 65.97)