An Arab Shepherd Is Searching For His Goat On Mount Zion

Yehuda Amichai 1924 (Würzburg) – 2000 (Israel)



An Arab shepherd is searching for his goat on Mount Zion
And on the opposite hill I am searching for my little boy.
An Arab shepherd and a Jewish father
Both in their temporary failure.
Our two voices met above
The Sultan's Pool in the valley between us.
Neither of us wants the boy or the goat
To get caught in the wheels
Of the "Had Gadya" machine.
  
Afterward we found them among the bushes,
And our voices came back inside us
Laughing and crying.
  
Searching for a goat or for a child has always been
The beginning of a new religion in these mountains.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on April 26, 2023

32 sec read
122

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXAAXBXXX XBX XX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 545
Words 107
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 9, 3, 2

Yehuda Amichai

Yehuda Amichai (‎3 May 1924 – 22 September 2000) was an Israeli poet. more…

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    "An Arab Shepherd Is Searching For His Goat On Mount Zion" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/57129/an-arab-shepherd-is-searching-for-his-goat-on-mount-zion>.

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