An Old Song

Shlomo Zamir

1960

1

Preface

Where pain weeps, it is the Jew who weeps.
Where a bullet is fired, it is the Jew who falls.
—Why is the dog barking near the fence?
—Someone threw a rock at him, at the Jew’s dog.
We walked on the snowy upland.
We raised our eyes to the stars,
But we found no stars.
Fierce winds, not Jewish, roared all around.
We raised our faces and…
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Creator Bio

Shlomo Zamir

1929–2017

Born in Baghdad, Shlomo Zamir published his earliest poems in Arabic. Upon immigrating to Israel in 1950, he joined a kibbutz and began learning Hebrew by reading poetry. A decade later, Zamir published his first collection of poems in Hebrew to widespread praise. Israeli critics were impressed by the modernist and ironic style, which challenged their perceptions of Arab literary capabilities.

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