A Flock of Sheep Near the Airport

A collection of sheep near the airport or a high voltage generator beside the orchard: these combinations unclose up my life like a hurt but they also heal it. That's wherefore my feelings always come in sum of two unitss That's why I'm like a man who tears up a alphabetic character and then has second notions picking up the pieces and pasting them together again with great pains, sometimes for the ease of his life.

But one time I went looking for my son at night and fix him in an empty basketball court lit through a powerful floodlight. He was playing all alone. And the unhurt of the ball bouncing was the solitary sound in the world.

Yehuda Amichai is single of the leading literary figures In Israel and a bard of international reputation. Since 1955 he has published eleven whirls of poetry in Hebrew, sum of two units novels, and a book of short stories. His work has been translated into thirty-three languages. He lives In Jerusalem.

Chana Bloch's volumes include twocollections of poetry, The unrevealeds of the Tribe and The Past holds Changing; translations of Dahlia Ravikovitch, Yehuda Amichai, and the sonnet of Songs; and a critical investigation Spelling the Word George Herbert and the Bible. She is Director of the Creative Writing Program at Mills corporation in Oakland, California.

Excerpt from The pick outed Poetry of Yehuda Amichai, Newly Revised and Expanded Edition, translated through Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell, published this September by the agency of the University of California Pres

Copyright World poesy Incorporated Sep/Oct 1996

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