Travels

Amichai's ability to write fluently and simply on many levels seems so natural, one can't imagine him ever having to blot a line. This book-length autobiographical poem is not an ongoing narrative but a series of linked meditations on the relationship between the life of the poet and the life of the state of Israel, beginning with his arrival there from Germany as a small boy, through the wars he has witnessed, and celebrating in particular his marriage and the birth of his son. The sections weave memory with history, and speculate on the meaning of history together with that of any single life. Amichai's poetry suggests by its tone, diction and language that the Bible is not a closed book but only waiting for new scribes to add the next chapters. The text is bilingual, with Hebrew on facing pages. The only complaint with this poem is that it's not always easy to tell where one section ends and the next begins. (April)