Tourists -by Yehuda Amichai

TOURISTS

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Tourists

- by Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000)

Visits of condolence is all
we get from them.
They squat at the Holocaust Memorial,
They put on grave faces at the Wailing Wall
And they laugh behind heavy curtains
In their hotels.

They have their pictures taken
Together with our famous dead
At Rachel's Tomb
And Herzl Tomb
And on the top of Ammunition Hill.

They weep over our sweet boys
And lust over our tough girls
And hang up their underwear
To dry quickly
In cool blue bathrooms.

Once I sat on the steps by a gate
At David's Tower, I placed my
Two heavy baskets at my side.
A group of tourists was standing around
Their guide and I became their target marker.

"You see that man with the baskets?
Just right of his head there's an arch from
The Roman Period. Just right of his head."
'But he's moving!' I said to myself, redemption
Will come only if their guide tells them,

"You see the arch
from the Roman period?
It's not important; but next to it,
Left and down a bit, there sits
a man who's bought fruit and
vegetables for his family."


- translated from the Hebrew of Yehuda Amichai by Glenda Abramson & Tudor Parfitt