Vox Populi
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Yehuda Amichai: God has Pity on Kindergarten Children
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,
and sometimes they must crawl on all fours
in the burning sand
to reach the first–aid station
covered with blood.
But perhaps he will watch over true lovers
and have mercy on them and shelter them
like a tree over the old man
sleeping on a public bench.
Perhaps we too will give them
the last rare coins of charity
that Mother handed down to us
so that their happiness may protect us
now and on other days.
Copyright 2013 Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell. From The Selected Poetry Of Yehuda Amichai translated by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell (U. of California Press, 2013).
Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) was Israel’s most popular poet, as well as a literary figure of international reputation. Born in Germany in 1924, Amichai and his family fled the country during Hitler’s rise to power when Amichai was 12 and settled in Palestine. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war he fought with the Israeli defense forces. The rigors and horrors of his service in this conflict, and in World War II, inform his poetry.
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Thanks for this. So timely.
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Thanks, Robbi!
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He touches me with every poem.
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Me too, Rose Mary.
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Thank you
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Very apt and timely, Michael, thank you.
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Very timely and apt, Michael, thank you.
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One of a handful of truly great poets of our time.
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Amechai was a wonderful poet.
By the way a national Syrian poet we used to study when in early years of learning , namely Badawi alJabal, has said once in a fine long rhymed poem:
ويا ربي من أجل الطفولة وحدها
أفض بركات السلم شرقا ومغربا
Oh God for childhood only
Please flood the mercy of peace over east
and west.
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Thank you, Saleh. I love these lines you’ve quoted by Badawi al Jabal.
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I think i have to correct myself. Those lines must read as follows (or some thing very close to it)..
Oh God for the sake of childhood
only
Please let grace of of peace flood over east and west
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Thanks, Saleh!
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