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My mother baked the whole world for me In sweet cakes. My beloved filled my window With raisins of stars. And my yearnings closed inside me Like bubbles in a loaf of bread. On the outside, I am smooth and quiet and brown. The world loves me. But: my hair is sad as reeds in a drying swamp-- All the rare birds with beautiful plumage Flee from me. © All rights reserved - Y. Amichai z"l Yehuda Amichai - A Life of Poetry 1948-1994 translated by Benjamin and Barbara HarshavLines 1-2: My mother introduced the world to me - a place that is rosy and cozy. When a baby is born the first thing he sees is his mother. She gives him food, which is the basic way he develops his trust in the world. Yehuda Amichai uses his description of the food and baking to symbolize the baby's security and trust in the world. The mother's duty is to nurture. These lines represent the childhood of the person.
Lines 3-4: We progress to adulthood and romantic love. Love adds optimism to our life. Now, in addition to his mother, he has his beloved and she adds love - by adding "raisins" to the cake. The stars symbolize dreams and hope - his beloved filled his life which the "window" symbolizes, with hope and dreams, represented by the "stars".
However, the images mentioned above contain an undertone of criticism towards all this love. Although he is surrounded by love, from his mother and his beloved, one can see that he feels choked and blinded - like when the poem says, "My beloved filled my window with "raisins of stars". Amichai uses this oxymoron, "raisins"=something small and shrunken whereas "stars"=something large and expanding) to illustrate the fact that the love blocks his freedom.
Lines 5-6: As a result of the previous lines, one can understand why the narrator compares himself to a "loaf of bread". In the bread there are air bubbles, which express longing. He wants more air but he cannot get it because the bread is closing in on him. Everyone is enveloping him and he feels suffocated.
Lines 7-8: He continues to describe how the world loves him, how everything is so nice and quiet on the outside, but inside he feels choked and static.
Lines 9-11: Ending: his hair looks like "reeds" that are in the "swamp". The swamp (= narrator) is drying up and so are the reeds, and because of that, the "birds", which may symbolize women, lovers, are not interested in him anymore so they "flee".
In conclusion, the first four lines of the poem describe the life cycle, through the eyes of an adult. He remembers how everything is rosy and positive; everyone loves him and takes care of him. His mother "bakes" for him and his beloved "fills his window".
In spite of his loving childhood and beginning adulthood, from the fifth line come the longings for freedom which were hinted at from the beginning. The world does not seem to be good anymore, and does not love him the same. Then comes old age and everyone "flees".
Ayelet, Maayan & Shani
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