Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) is widely considered to be Israel’s greatest contemporary poet. The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), edited by Robert Alter, is the largest English-language collection of the poet’s work. Israeli novelist Amos Oz says: “Yehuda Amichai’s language weaves together intimacy, casual conversation, hushed tones, and words exchanged in bed by lamplight — with the great monuments of our culture: the Bible, the prayer book, and Jewish mysticism, topped with a dollop of stinging irony.” These are profound and affecting poems to linger over. — M.S.
(American Jewish World, 3.11.16)
