HOURVITZ, YA'IR

HOURVITZ, YA'IR (1941–1988), Israeli poet. Hourvitz was born in Tel Aviv, where he resided until his early death. Among his poetry collections are Bi-Reḥovot Ilmim (with Binyamin Pashut, 1961), Shirim min ha-Kaẓeh ha-Namukh (1963), Shirim le-Louise (1963), Salvion (1966), Onat ha-Mekhashefah (1970), Narkisim le-Malkhut Madmenah (1972), Anatomyah shel Geshem (1980), and Yaḥasim u-De'agah (1986). A volume comprising his poems, 1960–1976, appeared under the title Goral ha-Gan in 1988.

The specific features of Hourvitz's work became noticeable after the volume Salvion appeared. Many of the poems in this book describe visionary or dreamlike states. There is a marked blurring of the single, discrete image and a disregard for syntax. The altered syntax can be attributed to the writer's wish to achieve immediacy in presenting his experiences and his disavowal of explicit or direct statement. The poems represent a reaction against the colloquial language and sophisticated irony that were so characteristic of the poets of the 1950s (Yehuda Amichai, Nathan Zach, David Avidan). This reaction became a turning point in Hebrew poetry and was characteristic of poems of the 1960s and 1970s.

This technique was apparent in his subsequent volumes as well, in which it was also possible to discern a tendency toward heightening the symbolic nature of the images and structuring the poem around a defined state or event.

Characteristic of his themes are the search for magical sensations close to the world of nature, in the center of a modern city; descriptions of his relationships with friends; and the experience of love and the fear of death.

English translations of some poems by Hourvitz are included, for instance, in The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself (2003). For further information about translations see ithl website at www.ithl.org.il.

add. bibliography:

N. Calderon in: La-Merḥav (Nov. 13, 1970); N. Calderon, in: Lamerḥav (7 Adar 1970); N. Calderon, "Al Shir Aviv shel Y. Hourvitz," in: Siman Keriah 2 (1973), 179–190; M. Peri, "Goral ha-Gan," in: Siman Keriah 7 (1977), 367–377, 469–471; A. Levit, in: Davar (November 19, 1982); R. Mazali, "Seeing Through: Yair Hurvitz's 'Anatomy of Rain,'" in: Modern Hebrew Literature, 7:1–2 (1981/82), 47–49; Z. Abramovitch-Ratner, Limẓo et Kivvun ha-Ruaḥ be-Anaf: Iyyun be-Tafkid ha-Iluziyyah be-Irgun Shiro shel Y. Hourvitz (1985); Y. Oppenheimer, "Meẓavei Beynayim be-Shirat Y. Hourvitz," in: Siman Keriah 21 (1990), 280–287; R. Weichert, "Be-Ikvot ha-Yofi he-Avud," in: Akhshav, 59 (1992), 251–270; R. Weichert, "Hithavvutoshel Meshorer," in: Alei Siaḥ 36 (1995), 33–48; L. Lachman, "Al Kav Hitpatteḥut be-Shirato shel Y. Hourvitz," in: Meḥkarei Makhon Porter, 2 (1996), 18–40; A. Kuriel, Shirat Y. Hourvitz (1997).

[Abraham Balaban]