DemonessTenebrae

Although Yehuda Amichai is truly a great and well known name, I have not had the pleasure of reading his works until now and I am truly sorry for that for he is definitely a name, a must-read name, for everyone who enjoys poetry, literature and serious works that dabble in everything from love, life, war, different kinds of relationships and many are intertwined with religious, Biblical and Jewish motives.

Yehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet, by many the most famous of the modern Israeli poets. His life wasn't easy and his choices have taken him down some very hard roads but also enriched his life and his spirit which he describes in his poems.

His poems are memorable because at first look they seem simple and straightforward but when you spend a little time on them, when you read them a couple of times and take them apart you will notice remarkable metaphors which will then stay with you for hours, days and longer, you will be unable to take your mind off of some of them. And that is what a truly great poet does. He finds his way into your heart and your head and creates ideas, thoughts and evokes feelings which will enrich your life in one way or the other.

I have only read his poems in English and Croatian but I have read many reviews that state how beautiful and rich his poems are when speaking of language in which he wrote in and that is colloquial Hebrew (one of the first poets to write in colloquial Hebrew). I believe it is so because even in my language his poems echo through my mind and my soul.

One of my favourite ones is "A Pity, We Were Such a Good Invention" :

"They amputated
Your thighs off my hips.
As far as I'm concerned
They are all surgeons. All of them.

They dismantle us
Each from the other.
As far as I'm concerned
They are all engineers. All of them.

A pity. We were such a good
And loving invention.
An aeroplane made from a man and wife.
Wings and everything.
We hovered a little above the earth.

We even flew a little."