Amir Gilboa

1917 - 1984

Israeli poet.

Amir Gilboa was born in the Ukraine and arrived in Palestine in 1937 as an illegal immigrant. Until 1942, when he joined the Jewish brigade of the British army, he worked in agricultural settlements, stone quarries, and orange groves. As a member of the Eighth Army, he participated in its activities in Egypt, North Africa, Malta, and Italy. At the end of World War II he was active in the transfer of Jewish Holocaust survivors from Europe to Palestine. Gilboa fought in the Israeli War of Independence of 1948 and his experiences play a major role in his poetry. He served as the editor of Massada Publishing in Tel Aviv, published nine volumes of his own poetry and received numerous literary awards, including the Israel Prize for Poetry and the New York University Newman Prize. A collection of his poetry in English translation, The Light of Lost Suns, was published in 1979.

Gilboa's early poetry is marked for its figurative expressionism, its prophetic voice, and intense tonality. Repetition, imagination, and colorful carnivalism are characteristic devices. His later poetry combines lyrical expression with nationalistic statements through references to biblical personae and events. The narrative voice often speaks from the excited and naive viewpoint of a child, creating poetic irony and ambiguity.

— ZVIA GINOR