Yehuda Amichai

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Yehuda Amichai

Jehuda Amichai ( Hebrew יהודה עמיחי; ) (* May 3, 1924 in Würzburg ; † September 22, 2000 in Jerusalem ; actually Ludwig Pfeuffer ; change of name to Amichai = Hebrew. My people are alive , in 1946) was a German - Israeli poet . He is considered one of the most widely read and important modern Israeli poets and was one of the first to write in slang Hebrew .

life and work

Amichai was born in 1924 as Ludwig Pfeuffer and son of the businessman Friedrich Moritz Pfeuffer in Würzburg. He grew up in strict adherence to the Jewish Orthodox faith. He learned the Hebrew language in the Jewish kindergarten and then in the elementary school near the synagogue.

Threatened by the anti-Semitic reprisals of the National Socialists , the family immigrated to Petach Tikwa / Palestine in 1935 and finally (1936 or 1937) moved to Jerusalem. Here Yehuda became a student of the religious Ma'alach school and a member of the Palmach, who worked underground . During the Second World War he fought in the Jewish Brigade of the British Armed Forces . In 1946 the family took the name Amichai and Ludwig the first name Jehuda (Yehuda). Jehuda Amichai began studying at the David Yellin Teachers' College in 1946. After the end of the Palestine War , he began studying Hebrew literature and biblical studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He then worked as a teacher and later as a university lecturer in Hebrew literature.

In 1955 his first volume of poetry was published now and in other times . In 1971, Amichai was visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley and in 1987 was poet in residence at New York University . For the revolutionary change in the language of Hebrew seal that was largely set by his work in progress, awarded him the state of Israel in 1982 the Israel Prize . In the same year Amichai was awarded the Bialik Prize . His birthplace Würzburg honored him with the city's culture award in 1981 and named a street after him in 2005. In 1990 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University. In 1986 he was elected as an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1991 as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Since 1993 he has been a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry .

His son Ron, born in 1961, comes from Amichai's first marriage to Tamar Horn, with whom he has been married since 1949, and from his second marriage to Chana [also: Hana] Sokolov-Amichai the two children David (born 1973) and Emanuella (born 1978). Amichai died of cancer in 2000 at the age of 76.

Amichai's books have been translated into more than 40 languages ​​and he was considered a leading contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. In Germany, the reception of his works began in the course of the discovery and increased translation of Hebrew literature into German since the 1970s: “It turns out that he is not known in Germany, although he was born in Würzburg, was a German childhood “, Wrote Christoph Meckel in 1988 in the text accompanying the first anthology of poems in German. Amichai's first novel Not from now, not from here ([Lo me achschaw lo mi-kan]) was published in Hebrew in 1963; The first edition appeared in English in 1968, and it was not until 1992, after the translation and publication of large parts of his lyrical work, which was considered more important, that the novel was also published in German. In 2017, on the occasion of the Würzburg reads project, a new edition was published in his hometown. In the same context, publishers from Würzburg also published an anthology of Amichai's poems as well as a collection of his texts ("Editions in German Language" see below).

Amichai's works are inextricably linked with traumatic experiences that the poet had during the years of National Socialism. One of the mainsprings of his writing activity is the “double identity” as a German and a Jew. Amichai's "painful, experiential poetry cares more about life than language, it offers help in life". About his role as a poet, Amichai says: “The real job of writers and artists is to give people words that support them. Art should help to live with reality, but must never arouse illusions. ”In his novel Not from now, not from here , Amichai's childhood impressions and the experiences of his early years in Palestine and Israel are condensed with the power of images from the Presence to an indissoluble whole. The message is conveyed that the past can only be mastered if it is not pushed aside, but integrated into the present. In his work, Amichai is much more spontaneous, ironic, and less obviously literary than other Hebrew poets. He combined Biblical Hebrew "with contemporary slang, and what is more, his work is full of irony that he applied to himself." Thanks to the artistic competence of this poet, who grew up in the Jewish faith, the Hebrew language became a modern means of communication, with which other than primarily religious statements and messages can be formulated validly. He was familiar with “the majesty of biblical language”, but he has taken away its “millennia-old weight”. Amichai "with the formative power of his language has made a great contribution to the self-understanding of Israel's new Hebrew national literature". The English poet Wystan Hugh Auden should be mentioned above all among the role models who shaped Amichai's literary work. In 1969 there was an intense encounter with the poet Paul Celan . He had paid a visit to Israel a few months before his death and was looked after by Amichai and introduced to the country's literary scene. Amichai translated some of his poems into Hebrew for Celan's readings. The two then exchanged letters with mutual respect, with Celan attesting his Israeli colleague to a convincing linguistic power and a high degree of authenticity.

expenditure

In German (chronological)

  • Jerusalem Poems , transl. Lydia u. Paulus Böhmer, Zurich / Munich (Pendo) 1987, ISBN 3-85842-355-6 .
  • How beautiful are your tents, Jakob (poems), trans. Alisa Stadler, selection Simon Wehrle; Epilogue: Christoph Meckel, Munich / Zurich (Piper) 1988, ISBN 3-492-11558-6 .
  • The night of the terrible dances (stories), selection u. Translated by Alisa Stadler, Munich / Zurich (Piper) 1990, ISBN 3-492-03210-9 .
  • Even a fist was once an open hand (poems), transl. Alisa Stadler, Munich / Zurich (Piper) 1994, ISBN 978-3-492-03568-2 .
  • Not from here, not from now (novel), trans. Ruth Achlama, Munich / Zurich (Piper) 1992, ISBN 978-3-492-03369-5 ; Zurich / Munich (Pendo) 1998, ISBN 978-3-858425034 ; New edition Würzburg (Königshausen and Neumann) 2017, ISBN 978-3-8260-6206-3 .
  • Time (poems, [Hebrew: Ha-sman]), transl. Lydia u. Paulus Böhmer, Frankfurt (Suhrkamp) 1998, ISBN 3-518-40987-5 .
  • Open Closed Open ([Hebrew: Patuach Sagur Patuach, 1998]), selection a. Translated by Karlheinz Müller, in: Festgabe für Jehuda Amichai for his 75th birthday, Würzburg (Verlag der Leonhard-Frank-Gesellschaft) 1999, pp. 52–64; ISBN 978-3-932404-06-1
  • Poems , ed. u. Translated by Hans D. Amadé Esperer, Würzburg (Königshausen and Neumann) 2018, ISBN 978-3-8260-6412-8 .
  • Between Würzburg and Jerusalem (texts), ed. u. Translated by Hans D. Amadé Esperer, Würzburg (Echter) 2018, ISBN 978-3-4290-4472-5 .

In English (chronological)

  • Not of this time, not of this place , [Heb .: Lo me achschaw lo mi-kan, 1963], New York (Harper & Row) 1968; London (Mitchell & Co) 1973, ISBN 0-85303-180-0 .
  • Poems of Jerusalem. New York (Harper & Row) 1988, ISBN 0-06-096288-7 . (bilingual edition: Hebrew and English)
  • A Life of Poetry. (Anthology), obs. from d. Hebrew Benjamin et al. Barbara Harshav, New York (Harper Collins) 1994, ISBN 0-06-019039-6 . (Collected poems 1948–1994)
  • Open Closed Open. [Hebrew: Patuach Sagur Patuach, 1998] (poems) from d. Hebrew Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld, Wilmington MA (Mariner Books) 2006, ISBN 978-0-15-603050-2 .
  • The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai (anthology), ed. v. Robert Alter, New York (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 2015, ISBN 978-0-374-23525-3 ; as paperback 2017, ISBN 978-0-374-53658-9 .

Settings

The high level of awareness that Amichai's poems and novels enjoy, especially in Israel, is evident from the fact that they are an integral part and content of lessons and school books and that they circulate as quotations in public life. The large number of settings also reflects its popularity. Starting from Israel, where composers discovered him as a lyricist at the end of the 1960s, he began a triumphal march through the English-speaking world. Today you can no longer hear his lyrics exclusively on the forums of modern serious music, rather he has won over the younger generation with his own convictions and preferences with his political message. Choral compositions for children's and youth choirs have a not insignificant share of the distribution. Amichai's texts have inspired many composers to create a particularly intense design, with the stylistic bandwidth of the settings ranging from liturgical rigor to individually experienced expressiveness.

Overview (chronological)

  • Tzvi Avni musically transformed Amichai's poem The Moon now chained with a necklace into a “collage” for mezzo-soprano, flute, percussion instruments and tape, and created an imaginative world of sound over the surrealistic text (1967).
  • Tzvi Avni composed the choral work "On Mercy" based on a text by Amichai (1973).
  • Mark Kopytman set Amichai's poem "shemesh october" [ October Sun ] to music for voice, flute, violin, cello, piano and percussion instruments (1974). In 1975 he wrote - also based on a text by Amichai - This is a Gate without a Wall for voice and chamber ensemble.
  • Vered Shilony wrote four choral movements All Men (1977) on texts by Amichai.
  • Amichai's poem "Your Life and Death, my Father" was set to music by Aharon Harlap in Three Songs f. Mezzosop. or baritone u. Orchestra (1983).
  • Elizabeth Swados used & a. Texts by Amichai in her oratorio "Jerusalem" (1984).
  • Tzvi Avni created The City plays Hide and Seek for 3-part women's or children's choir (1986) based on a text by Amichai.
  • In Scattered Rhymes for gem. Choir and Ka.-Orch. (1988) Mark Kopytman turned Amichai's verses into a hymn about joy.
  • A poem by Amichai can be found in Two Songs for soprano and piano (1984) by Aharon Arlap.
  • A text by Amichai forms the basis of the funeral prayer El male rachamim for 12-st. Chorus by Josef Tal (1993?)
  • Amichais Man doesn't have Time was set to music by Moshe Zorman for gem. Choir (1995).
  • If I forget thee, Jerusalem by Amichai was written by Gabriel Iranyi in the form of an oratorio for baritone, acc. Choir and orchestra set to music (1996).
  • As a Diamond by Amichai forms the basis of the orchestral song of the same name, Op. 47 (1998) by Tsippi Fleischer.
  • For his composition … che questo è stato… for vibraphone and playback CD (1998/2001) Klaus Hinrich Stahmer used a recording of his poem about the tombstones from the 1998 published collection of poems Open, Closed, Open [Patuach Sagur Patuach] that Amichai had read .
  • Dov Carmel wrote Sabbath Eve and the wonderful Thing for three equal voices (children's choir) a. Piano; Text: Jehuda Amichai (2000).
  • A poem by Amichai forms the basis of the text for Even a Fist was once an open Palm (2002/2007), a choral composition by the American composer Elizabeth Alexander.
  • Amichai Songs is the title of a song cycle for baritone and chamber ensemble. (2006) by the American composer David Froom.
  • The Friday evening song Shir Leyl Shabat by Amichai forms the basis of a popular setting by Moshe Wilensky (1910–1997), which was posthumously edited by Michael Wolpe (2006).
  • Hana Ajiashvili wrote “Three Songs” based on poems by Jehuda Amichai for soprano, clarinet, violin, cello and piano (2007).
  • The Czech composer Jan Dušek also set texts by Amichai to music. Jewish dreams for soprano, clarinet, cello etc. String orchestra (2008) consists of seven movements based on the menorah .
  • In 2009 the singer Nizza Thobi published a suitcase speaks Amichai's poem Kleine Ruth in the translation of Alisa Stadler on her album Ein Koffer .
  • Poems by Jehuda Amichai and Paul Pines form the basis of the 5th Symphony for Voice and Orchestra by the Canadian composer Daniel Asia, which in 15 orchestral songs follows the tradition of Mahler's "Lied von der Erde" and Zemlinsky's "Lyric Symphony" (2008).
  • In the 3rd Symphony (2010) by the American composer Mohammed Fairouz, along with texts by Mahmoud Darwish and Fadwa Tuqan, the poem Memorial for the War Dead by Amichai forms the basis for the final movement (2010).
  • The English composer Benjamin Wallfisch set Amichai's An Eternal Window to music for voice and chamber ensemble (2011).
  • In an experimental performance form, Evan Zyporin combines the instrumental playing of cellist Maya Beiser with her singing and in Tsmindao Ghmerto Amichai's "Like Smoke" mixes with texts and melodies from the Old Georgian liturgy (2013).
  • Amichai's poem It's hard to love blindly was recorded as a pop song on the CD "To love alone in that long Summer" by Barzin (artist name) (2014).
  • Jazz-related and Middle Eastern singing techniques give the two poems by Amichai, which were set to music by the singer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb along with other texts in Shiva , an authentic sound image characterized by strong emotionality (2016).

Secondary literature

  • Robert Alter : Only a Man. In: The New Republic . December 31, 2008. (online)
  • Boas Arpali: "The Flowers and the Urn". Amichai's Poetry - Structure, Meaning, Poetics . Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1986.
  • Boaz Arpali: Patuach, Patuach. In: Haaretz. January 16, 2009. (online)
  • Nili Scharf Gold: Yehuda Amichai: The Making of Israel's National Poet . Brandeis University Press, 2008.
    • Review: Joshua Cohen: The poet who invented himself. Forward, September 4, 2008. (online)
  • Boas Arpaly: The making of Israel National Poet. In: SHOFAR. 28, 2, winter 2010, p. 213f.
  • Essi Lapon-Kandeslshein: To Commemorate the 70th Birthday of Yehuda Amichai: A Bibliography of His Work in Translation. Institute of the Translation of Hebrew Literature, Ramat Gan (Israel) 1994.
  • Christian Leo: "Wipe, remember and forget". Jehuda Amichai's novel 'Not from now, not from here' in a philosophical and literary context . Königshausen & Neumann , Würzburg 2004.
  • Dan Miron: Yehuda Amichai - A Revolutionary With a Father. In: Haaretz . 3, 12, 14, October 2005.
  • Matt Nesvisky: Letters I wrote to you. In: The Jerusalem Report. December 8, 2008.
  • Yehudit Tzvik: Yehuda Amichai: A Selection of critical essays on his writing. Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1988.
  • The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself. 2003, ISBN 0-8143-2485-1 .
  • Chana Kronfeld: The Wisdom of Camouflag. In: Prooftexts. 10, 1990, pp. 469-491.
  • Bruno Rottenbach: Between Würzburg and Jerusalem. The fate of a German-Jewish poet . Biography and selection of works. Edited by the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation , Würzburg 1981.
  • Renate Eichmeier, Edith Raim: Between War and Love. The poet Jehuda Amichai . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-940938-98-5 .
    • Annette Sommer, review, in: Kalonymos . 15th vol., H. 1, 2012, pp. 11-13. (also online)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ludwig Pfeuffer - an Israeli writer from Franconia. In: Godel Rosenberg: Franz Josef Strauss and his Jew. Memories between Munich and Tel Aviv. Allitera, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86906-746-9 ( Google Books )
  2. ^ Honorary Members: Yehuda Amichai. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 4, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Jehuda Amichai: How beautiful are your tents, Jacob (poems). Piper, Munich / Zurich 1988.
  4. ↑ see under "Weblinks"
  5. ↑ http://www.mainpost.de/regional/wuerzburg/Wuerzburg-liest-wieder-ein-Buch-Diesmal-von-Jehuda-Amichai;art735,9570962
  6. ^ Yehuda Amichai: The Burden of Dual Identities? In: The Parliament , weekly newspaper for politics (Bonn), April 15, 1988.
  7. ↑ Thomas Betz: Poetry of breathing space. In: literary criticism. 1st year No. 10, October 1999.
  8. ↑ Jehuda Amichai in a newspaper interview on the occasion of the German-Israeli writers' meeting in Berlin in 1993; quoted after d. Blurb of Also a fist was once an open hand . Piper, Munich / Zurich 1994.
  9. ↑ ha-Galil 2000
  10. ↑ Christoph Meckel in: Jehuda Amichai, How beautiful are your tents, Jakob . Piper, Munich / Zurich 1988, p. 162.
  11. ↑ David Schuster, in: Between Würzburg and Jerusalem, Festschrift for Yehuda Amichai , ed. from the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Würzburg, 1981.
  12. ^ John Felstiner: An Exchange on Nation and Exile . In: Words without Borders - The Online Magazine for International Literature, November 2008. See also: Na'ama Rokem: German – Hebrew Encounters in the Poetry and Correspondence of Yehuda Amichai and Paul Celan . Prooftexts, ed. Indiana University Press Vol. 30, No. 1 (2010), pp. 97-127.
  13. ↑ Published on the CD SYMPOSIUM RECORDS (England), order no. 1110.
  14. ↑ Published on CD "The Jerusalem Artist Series" 04-2000, ed. v. Jerusalem Municipality, Culture Dept.
  15. ↑ Published on CD "The Jerusalem Artist Series" 04-2000, ed. v. Jerusalem Municipality, Culture Dept.
  16. ↑ Published on the CD "Israel at 50" Label: Opus One, Order No. 175
  17. ↑ Published on the CD "Sh'ma" amphion records amph 20268 EAN 4039147000686.
  18. ↑ Published on CD "Finally on My Way to Yes", Seafarer Press SEA-CD-01
  19. ↑ Released on the CD "David Froom - Song and Dance", BRIDGE 9240 (EAN: 0090404924026)
  20. ↑ Released on CD "Of Songs and Psalms" (2012) on the Summitrecords label, order no. 579.
  21. ↑ Published on CD by the Sonoluminus label, Order No. DSL 92177 (2014).
  22. ↑ Published by the label: Monotreme (Cargo Records).
  23. ↑ Published on CD by 482 Music (2016).
personal data
SURNAME Amichai, Yehuda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pfeuffer, Ludwig (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Israeli poet
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 2000
Place of death Jerusalem