כלב אחרי האהבה
אַחֲרֵי שֶׁעָזַבְתְּ אוֹתִי
נָתַתִּי לְכֶלֶב גִשׁוּשּ לְהָּרִיחַ
בְּחָזִי וְּבִבְטִני
יְמָלֵּא נְחִירָיו
וְיֵצֵא לִמְצֹא אוֹתָךְ
אֲנִי מְקַוֶּה שֶׁיִּמְצָא וְיִקְרַע
אֶת אֶשְׁכֵי מְאַהֲבֵךְ וְיִכְרת שִׁפְכָתוֹ
אוֹ לְכָל הַפָּחוֹת
יָבִיא לִי גֶרֶב שֶׁלָךְ בֵּין שׁינָּיו
A Dog after Love
After you left me
I let a dog smell
my chest and my belly.
It fills its snout
and sets out to find you.
I hope it finds
and tears your lover´s testicles
and bites off his prick.
Or at the very least
brings me your pantyhose
between his teeth.
translated into English by Mark F Westergreen
Comments________________________________________________________________
But one day in 1989, he sat down with the man who some call the most widely translated Hebrew poet since King David. Here's Henry Lyman to introduce him. Mr. HENRY LYMAN (Host, "Poets To a Listener') He is Yehuda Amichai, a warm-hearted bear of a man
I like this poem because it is a dog poem, a jilted lover´s poem and it has a biblical undertone. As is often the case in human experience when a lover is jilted, it is not the ex-lover, but her new man who becomes the main object of scorn and hate. In this poem the jealous wish is quite violent. It is not only to prevent the new lover from having sex with her and from being able to procreate, but to cut him off from God´s people, or the community, entirely! The term שִׁפְכָה occurs once in the Tanakh at Deut 23.1-2 in connection with this very prohibition. Amichai´s Poetry is full of biblical allusions and connections.
To this end, the poet employs a dog. The term "dog" in the Bible is used as a euphemism for a male prostitute. Of course we all know the various connotations of the term in most modern languages, and I am certain if our sample size for biblical Hebrew was larger we would find the same usage. The title itself is an integral part of the poem and self-referential, as to the behavior of the narrator within the poem itself. He is behaving like a "dog", that is, like a low down, dirty scoundrel, in the modern sense of the term. Amichai certainly created and nurtured a larger than life image of himself within his poetry as a machismo filled lover of women. And this is a glimpse at its dark side.
But why does he want her stockings? Does he want a trophy to perserve a memory? Perhaps.
That would be in the nature of a dog, so to say. Does he want to expose her nakedness? Perhaps. That would cut her off from the Lord´s assembly as well (v.; Ex 20:26; 28:42; 1 Sam 16:8 & especially Ezek 16:8).
Actually, there is a bit of dissonance occurring between גרב וגבר (hero, man, stud, and stocking, pantyhose). By this line in the poem one expects to hear גבר but gets גרב instead. And a dog would do that too! Disappoint the expectations of its master who sent it out to do such a dirty job, only to return, looking up, happily wagging its tail with a pair of pantyhose hanging between its teeth.
Here is an interesting article discussing a judaistic perspective on dogs: Of Canines and Commandments.
Euphemisms for "Penis" in Hebrew
After you left me
I let a dog smell
my chest and my belly.
It fills its snout
and sets out to find you.
I hope it finds
and tears your lover´s testicles
and bites off his prick.
Or at the very least
brings me your pantyhose
between his teeth.
translated into English by Mark F Westergreen
Comments________________________________________________________________
But one day in 1989, he sat down with the man who some call the most widely translated Hebrew poet since King David. Here's Henry Lyman to introduce him. Mr. HENRY LYMAN (Host, "Poets To a Listener') He is Yehuda Amichai, a warm-hearted bear of a man
I like this poem because it is a dog poem, a jilted lover´s poem and it has a biblical undertone. As is often the case in human experience when a lover is jilted, it is not the ex-lover, but her new man who becomes the main object of scorn and hate. In this poem the jealous wish is quite violent. It is not only to prevent the new lover from having sex with her and from being able to procreate, but to cut him off from God´s people, or the community, entirely! The term שִׁפְכָה occurs once in the Tanakh at Deut 23.1-2 in connection with this very prohibition. Amichai´s Poetry is full of biblical allusions and connections.
To this end, the poet employs a dog. The term "dog" in the Bible is used as a euphemism for a male prostitute. Of course we all know the various connotations of the term in most modern languages, and I am certain if our sample size for biblical Hebrew was larger we would find the same usage. The title itself is an integral part of the poem and self-referential, as to the behavior of the narrator within the poem itself. He is behaving like a "dog", that is, like a low down, dirty scoundrel, in the modern sense of the term. Amichai certainly created and nurtured a larger than life image of himself within his poetry as a machismo filled lover of women. And this is a glimpse at its dark side.
But why does he want her stockings? Does he want a trophy to perserve a memory? Perhaps.
That would be in the nature of a dog, so to say. Does he want to expose her nakedness? Perhaps. That would cut her off from the Lord´s assembly as well (v.; Ex 20:26; 28:42; 1 Sam 16:8 & especially Ezek 16:8).
Actually, there is a bit of dissonance occurring between גרב וגבר (hero, man, stud, and stocking, pantyhose). By this line in the poem one expects to hear גבר but gets גרב instead. And a dog would do that too! Disappoint the expectations of its master who sent it out to do such a dirty job, only to return, looking up, happily wagging its tail with a pair of pantyhose hanging between its teeth.
Here is an interesting article discussing a judaistic perspective on dogs: Of Canines and Commandments.
Euphemisms for "Penis" in Hebrew
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What a great translation!
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