 |
Mot Avi |
 |
By Yehuda AmichaiMy father, suddenly, left all the places For his strange, distant spaces. We went to call his God, to bow: May God come and help us now. And God takes pains, is coming soon, He hung His coat on the hook of the moon But our father, who went out on this endeavor God will keep him there forever. © All rights reserved - Y. Amichai z"l Yehuda Amichai - A Life of Poetry 1948-1994 translated by Benjamin and Barbara HarshavThe poem talks about the death of the speaker's father. It gives the reader a feeling that the person speaking is a child for two main reasons. First, the descriptions are childish and sound like explanations grownups give children about death, when a relative dies. Because of those childish explanations, by reading the poem without the title it may seem that it does not necessarily speak of death. Second, in the original text (in the Hebrew language) the poem rhymes which along with the type of language makes the poem sound child-like. Nevertheless, by reading the poem you can tell that it speaks of death and not merely a journey his father went on. This can be seen in the first stanza by: 1. "Suddenly"- Normally, a person going on a regular journey does not leave suddenly. The word "suddenly" hints of an unexpected journey, and death is always unexpected and sudden. (Even if the person is very sick or dying). 2. "left all the places"- the expression sounds suspicious, and too absolute and complete. 3." his strange distant spaces"- his distances specifically and not "distances" in a more general term. Again, his distances are strange and not ordinary. 4. In the last stanza it states that "God will keep him there forever "- in his stanza you can see very clearly that the poem is about death, and cannot be understood otherwise. The poem does not deal with sadness about the death of the speaker's father, but with anger and criticism towards God, and towards the explanations that make death seem less terrible than it actually is. Criticism towards God: 1. "And God takes pains, is coming soon, He hung His coat on the hook of the moon"- the personification shows disrespect that lowers God to human behavior. The attitude of God to the father that is portrayed is of indifference and apathy. 2." We went to call his God, to bow: May God come and help us now. ... God will keep him there forever"- God was supposed to help and lead the father, but instead he took him away, forever. Furthermore, the choice of words shows us that the speaker goes through a process in which he becomes more detached and separated from God: In the first and second stanzas the choice of words is: When regarding the father- " My father". When regarding God- " his God". The reader gets a feeling from these stanzas that God belongs to the father and not the speaker, in a very personal sense. Yet, in the fourth stanza the choice of words is a little different: When regarding his father- "our father". When regarding God- "God". From here you can see that God does not belong to the speaker anymore, (Whereas in the first and second stanzas he had some connection to God who was the God of his father), and the phrase is more general. In the progression of the stanzas God became more distant from the speaker and the father. "Our father' in the Jewish sources comes from and is used in a Hebrew prayer- "avinu shebashamayim" , and means "our father in heaven" that refers to God, but here it refers to the father of the speaker. That portrays the "humanistic" attitude that places the human in the center as opposed to God being in the center. My Father's Death deals with criticism towards God and the difficulties a person encounters when experiencing the death of someone close to him. Chana and Mivi
Literature
Exchange
About
Yehuda
Amichai
Zelda
Comparing the Poems
Modern Israeli Poetry
Sources & Links
Credits
