Yehuda Amichai
Israeli · 1924–2000
Israel's most beloved modern poet, who transformed colloquial Hebrew into a medium for exploring love, war, faith, and the intimate textures of life in Jerusalem, making the personal and the political inseparable.
Wikipedia ↗“אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֵם עַל יַלְדֵי הַגַּן.”
Hebrew
“God has pity on kindergarten children. He has less pity on school children. And on grownups he has no pity at all. He leaves them alone.”
“מִן הַמָּקוֹם שֶׁבּוֹ אָנוּ צוֹדְקִים לֹא יִצְמְחוּ לְעוֹלָם פְּרָחִים בָּאָבִיב.”
Hebrew
“From the place where we are right, flowers will never grow in the spring. The place where we are right is hard and trampled like a yard. But doubts and loves dig up the world like a mole, a plow.”
“קוֹטֶר הַפְּצָצָה הָיָה שְׁלוֹשִׁים סַנְטִימֶטֶר וְקוֹטֶר טְוָוח הַפְּגִיעָה שֶׁלָּהּ כְּשִׁבְעָה מֶטְרִים.”
Hebrew
“The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters, with four dead and eleven wounded. And around these, in a larger circle of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered and one graveyard.”
“תַּיָּרִים בָּאוּ לִרְאוֹת אֶת הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה וַאֲנִי הֶרְאֵיתִי לָהֶם אֶת הַבַּיִת שֶׁבּוֹ נוֹלַדְתִּי.”
Hebrew
“Tourists came to see the Old City and I showed them the house where I was born. The guide told them: Third on the right. I said to myself: Sixth row in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives.”
“אָדָם בְּחַיָּיו אֵין לוֹ זְמַן שֶׁיִּהְיֶה לוֹ זְמַן לְכָל דָּבָר.”
Hebrew
“A man in his life has no time to have time for everything. He has no room to have room for every desire. Ecclesiastes was wrong to say that. A man has to love and to hate at the same moment.”
“אֲנִי שֶׁמִּשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ רַק בְּחֵלֶק קָטָן מִן הַמִּלִּים שֶׁבַּמִּלּוֹן.”
Hebrew
“I, who use only a small part of the words in the dictionary. I, who must decipher riddles I don't want to decipher. I want to live with the way things are spoken, not with the way things are written.”