Yehuda Amichai 10-22-1986
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Authors
Amichai, Yehuda
Issue Date
1986-10-22
Type
Video
Language
en_US
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Abstract
Stan Sanville Rubin and Judith Kitchen interview Yehuda Amichai. Yehuda Amichai is one of the leading literary figures of Israel and a poet of international reputation. Yehuda Amichai was born in Germany and immigrated with his parents to then Palestine in 1936 at the age of 11. He fought with the British Army in World War Two and served with the Israeli army through three wars. Since 1955, he has published 10 volumes of poems, a novel. And a collection of stories. His writers forum appearance celebrates the first English publication of the selected poetry of Yehuda Amichai Harper and Row 1980. Six translated by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell. Amichai opens the interview with a reading from his selected poems called, "A Man Does Not Have Time". The conversation begins with discussing the pattern of preoccupation with time in Amichai's writing. Amichai outlines how the poet perceives time and how living people are constantly aware of time, how it stretches back into the histories they're produced by and how time is exercised in the human experience. This creates the link to the next topic wherein Amichai explains his echoed uses of the Torah, in particular the Song of Solomon, The Book of Job, and Ecclesiastes. The Torah, or the Old Testament, Amichai explains this is simply a natural part of him, part of the history which produced him which resulted in much of his work being written in Hebrew. The conversation turned then to the process by which Amichai's poems were translated from Hebrew to English. This split between two languages segues to a discussion regarding a reviewer's comment stating a difference between "old Amichai and a new Amichai". Amichai mentioned he didn't feel the change the reviewer was describing. Stan turns the conversation to ask Amichai about his relationship to his country and his political views. Amichai speaks about his experience living in Palestine before and during the formation of the state of Israel and how he felt he was part of building his new home country. He compared that timeline of 50 years to America's 200 years and explained that time seemed condensed. Amichai closes the conversation by reading "You Can Rely On Him".
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Publisher
SUNY Brockport