Aharon Amir (; January 5, 1923 – February 28, 2008) was an Israeli

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

poet, a literary translator and a writer.

Biography

Aharon Amir was born in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. He moved to Palestine with his family in 1933 and grew up in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. His father, Meir Lipec, was later director of the publishing house Am Oved. He attended

Gymnasia Herzliya The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium (, also known as ''Gymnasia Herzliya''), originally known as HaGymnasia HaIvrit (lit. Hebrew High School) is a historic high school in Tel Aviv, Israel, whose faculty and alumni includes many people influential in t ...

high school. At the time of the

British Mandate in Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

, while studying

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Language and Literature at the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

, Amir was a member of the

Irgun The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...

and Lehi undergrounds as well as a founding member of the Canaanite movement (

Canaanism Canaanism was a cultural and ideological movement founded in 1939, reaching its peak among the Jews of Mandatory Palestine during the 1940s. It has had a significant effect on the course of Israeli art, literature and spiritual and political t ...

), which saw Hebrew or Israeli culture as defined by geographical location rather than religious affiliation. Amir was married to Bettine, a poet and painter. He had three children from a previous marriage. He died of cancer on February 28, 2008, at the age of 85, and left his body to science.

Literary career

Amir translated over 300 books into Hebrew, including

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

classics by Melville,

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

, Camus,

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...

and

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

Emily Brontë Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English writer best known for her 1847 novel, ''Wuthering Heights''. She also co-authored a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte and Anne Bront� ...

and

O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the Ma ...

. He also translated works by

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

and

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

. He founded and edited the literary magazine ''Keshet'', which he closed in 1976 after eighteen years of publication to concentrate on his own writing. In 1998, the magazine was revived as ''The New Keshet''. He was often known in Israel thanks to a popular song by

Meir Ariel Meir Ariel (; 2 March 1942 – 18 July 1999) was an Israeli singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was known as a "man of words" for his poetic use of the Hebrew language in his lyrics. His influences included Hebrew poets such as ibn Gabirol, Na ...

, which cited Amir's translation of Hemingway's '' Islands in the Stream''.

Awards and recognition

* In 1951, Amir was awarded the

Tchernichovsky Prize Tchernichovsky Prize is an Israeli prize awarded to individuals for exemplary works of translation into Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasia ...

for exemplary translation. * In 2003, he was awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

, for translation.

Publications

Books Published in Hebrew

Memorial plaque to Aharon Amir in Tel Aviv

* ''Qadim'' (poetry), Machbarot Lesifrut, 1949 adim* ''Love'' (stories), Machbarot Lesifrut, 1951 hava* ''And Death Shall Have No Dominion'' (novel), Zohar, 1955 e-Lo Tehi La-Mavet Memshala* ''Seraph'' (poetry), Machbarot Lesifrut, 1956 araph* ''Nun'' (trilogy), Massada, 1969-1989 un* ''Yated'' (poetry), Levin-Epstein, 1970 ated* ''Prose'' (stories), Hadar, 1972

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* ''A Perfect World'' (novel), Massada, 1975 lam She-Kullo Tov* ''A Separate Peace'' (poetry), Massada, 1979 halom Nifrad* ''Aphrodite or the Organized Tour'' (novella), Ma'ariv, 1984 froditi o Ha-Tiyul Ha-Meurgan* ''Heres'' (poetry),

Zmora Bitan Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir is a book publishing company in Israel. History The company's oldest imprint, Dvir, was founded in Odessa in 1919 by Hayim Nahman Bialik.

, 1984 eres* ''The Clouds Return After the Rain'' (poetry), Bialik Institute/Machbarot Lesifrut, 1991 e-Shavu He-Avim Ahar Ha-Geshem* ''Aaron's Rod'' (poetry), Zmora Bitan, 1996

ate Aharon Ate or ATE may refer to: Organizations * Association of Technical Employees, a trade union, now called the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians * Swiss Association for Transport and Environment, a sustainable public transpo ...

* ''The Villains'' (novel), 1998 a-Nevalimref name=translation/>

Books in Translation

* And Death Shall Have No Dominion(Le soldats du matin); French: Paris, Le Seuil, 1961

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amir, Aharon Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium alumni Israel Prize in literature recipients Jewish poets Israeli poets Lithuanian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Israeli people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Lithuanian Zionists 1923 births 2008 deaths Canaanites (movement) Israeli translators English–Hebrew translators French–Hebrew translators 20th-century Israeli translators 20th-century Israeli poets 20th-century Lithuanian Jews Betar members Recipients of Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works Irgun members Lehi members