mi Kos, Mayim

In Israel, Amit Ben Ami is a fresh, rising voice in the world of poetry. Though written in Hebrew, Amit's poetry is heavily influenced by the work of American poets, including Gertrude Stein, the Objectivists (especially George Oppen), and the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets (especially Charles Bernstein). Given my own interest in the influence of American poetry on Israeli writers, it has been an amazing experience to help bring the American impact on Hebrew letters back into English. I hope that this cyclical cross-lingual influence only expands and gains momentum!

The poems presented here are from the first section of Amit’s first full-length poetry collection, Kos, Mayim (Glass, Water; Barhash, 2020). The section, titled “Pictures,” presents poems that utilize pared-down language and directly engage readers with curious features of day-to-day life and the playfulness of language. These poems present a contemplative attitude as well as inviting us to join the meditation. As a translator, I am interested in the tension between what seem like universal ideas and the thick-yet-subtle swarm of cultural particulars.

In Kos, Mayim, the passing references to Jewish mourning rituals and Israeli traffic hint at cultural experiences that are particular to Israel, yet they run the risk of losing their intensity if they were explained. To me, it is interesting that the editor of Asymptote chose poems in which the clear allusions to particularly Israeli contexts seems minimized. Thus, we could say that this little selection focuses on the more universal spirit of Amit’s writing—a universal spirit that is perhaps most clearly expressed in a poem like “orifice.” At first, that short poem might come across as crude, and even dismissable. Yet, further consideration unravels the experience of inspecting one's own genitals, noticing their difference, and then how the difference appears to disappear. Standing on one foot, I would say that Amit’s poetry echoes the thoughts of his favorite predecessor, Gertrude Stein: “The difference is spreading.”