| “JERUSALEM IS FULL OF USED JEWS” YEHUDA AMICHAI’S POEMS OF JERUSALEM (2006) |
| 46’ 27” Minutes |
| subtitles: English |
| Pal and NTSC Beta SP, DVD and VHS |
Synopsis
Poem1
Poem2
Video Clip
Screening History
International Distribution
Contact
Production Team
External Links
The documentary's soundtrack contains Amichai himself reading his poem When I Die in his own voice. |
|
 |
“When I die, I want only women from the burial society to treat me and do with my body as their pretty eyes see fit, and clean my ears of the last words I heard, and wipe my lips of the last words I said, and erase from my eyes the things I saw, and smooth my brow of worry, and fold my arms upon my chest Like the sleeves of a shirt after ironing, and salve my flesh with scented oil anointing me King of Death for a day.” |
SYNOPSIS
Yehuda Amichai has been Israel's best-known poet and the most widely translated. He was born in Wurzburg, Germany, in 1924, and immigrated with his family to Palestine in 1936. Although his upbringing was religious, upon reaching maturity Amichai became secular. In the university he studied Biblical texts and Hebrew literature. W.H. Auden and Dylan Thomas influenced Amichai poems. Sketching from various strata of language - from Biblical, Talmudic and classical to post-modern Hebrew - Amichai was a magician of words. Much of his work is autobiographical. "My personal history has coincided with a larger history," he said. "For me it's always been one and the same." Ted Hughes made Amichai's work known to English and American readers. His poetry has been translated into 33 languages and his readings draw large crowds in Germany (German was his native language) and all over the United States.
In many of his poems that are addressed to Jerusalem, Amichai express his deep love to the city, its history and commoners, while showing disgust and repulsion toward its politicians and agitators.
 |
 |
 |
The Israeli author Meir Shalev is interviewed in the documentary. Shalev describes Amichai’s poetical attitude to Jerusalem:
“I think, first of all, that he doesn’t fall for her lies and her make-up and her masks. He’s not impressed by things that others would kill or die for. He demands the respect he deserves as a man who lives in this city. He points out the weakness Jerusalem has for the dead. He says that the water level here is lower than the dead, and “water” symbolizes the living, of course. He says that the dead are gradually surrounding the city, referring to Herman Melville, who was in the city 150 years ago and said that Jerusalem is surrounded by cemeteries, and the dead are its most powerful guild. And he says that this is the only city on Earth where even the dead have freedom of choice and I would go further and say: Only the dead have freedom of choice, because the fate and future of the city are determined by the dead”.
Amichai’s close friend, the poet Haim Gouri, analyzes his poem “Jerusalem is Full of Used Jews”:
“’Jerusalem is Full of Used Jews’ - It’s the name of a poem, right? It’s such a provocative title, ‘Used Jews’...’ Jerusalem is full of tired Jews. And they are whipped anew on Memorial Day and holidays, like dancing bears with aching legs. And the eye looks to Zion Looks and weeps’... ‘Looks and weeps.’ Amichai took the line: ‘As long as deep in the heart... eye looks to Zion’ from the Israeli national Anthem, Hatikva, and phrased it ‘Looks and weeps.’ His ability... his myth debunking and his anti-pathos, his profound use of historical memory, these are typical Amichai combinations, no one here wrote like this before him”.
 |
“Jerusalem is full of
used Jews,
Second-hand Jews with
minor flaws, cheaper.
And the eye looks to Zion
Looks all the time.
And all of the eyes of the living
and the dead are cracked like eggs
On the edge of the bowl,
to make the city rich and fat
and puffy.
And the eye looks to Zion
Looks all the time.
Jerusalem is full of tired Jews
And they are whipped anew on
Memorial Day and holidays
Like dancing bears with aching legs
And the eye looks to Zion
Looks and weeps”
 |
If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem
If I forget thee, Jerusalem,
Then let my right be forgotten.
Let my right be forgotten, and my left remember.
Let my left remember, and your right close
And your mouth open near the gate.
What does Jerusalem need?
She doesn’t need a mayor,
“She needs a circus manager,
with a whip in his hand
to tame prophesies and to train
prophets to gallop in circles,
and to teach her stones to form a
daring, dangerous building
for the finale. Then they jump down...”
 |
|
