This week I look at a poem by the greatest poet NEVER to win the Noble Prize for Literature. Yehuda Amichai was able to write about the experience of being an Israeli and Jew during the years when the state of Israel came into being and endured three military attacks from their neighbours in what was seen as a fight for survival spurned on from the horrors of The Shoah. But he wrote about these events in a manner that focused more on the internal conflicts of the individual rather than the nation around him, and in so doing he joined the likes of Seamus Heaney in breaking the barriers of the border of his country and the narrow frame of reference of place, to become a truly universal and beloved poet.
His work was translated into forty different languages, making him the most translated Hebrew poet since King David.
To read more about this amazing poet, please click HERE.
To read the poem, click the link HERE.
Yehuda Amichai, “Poem Without an End” from The Selected Poetry Of Yehuda Amichai. Copyright © 1996 by Yehuda Amichai. The recording of Yehuda Amichai reciting his poem is taken from the TV show Poetry Spots Season 2. To find out about the landmark TV show, click the link HERE.
To learn more about my work, including my upcoming new collection of poetry called Oxide-Doo-La-Daisy, then check out my website HERE.
The sound recordings in this podcast are being used in a noncommercial and educational manner only. All rights to the material remain with the author, translator, and with rights owners of the TV show Poetry Spots.
