Ory Bernstein

Ory Bernstein (1936-2017) was born in Tel Aviv. He studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and served as an attorney in the IDF. After working in the private sector, he was CEO of one of Israel's largest corporations for 23 years, and later practiced law in Tel Aviv. Bernstein was co-editor of the literary journal Yochani together with Natan Zach, a guest lecturer in creative writing at Tel Aviv University and a professor of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He also served as chairman of the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature.
Bernstein published many volumes of poetry, a novel, a collection of prose poems, two collections of essays, a travel book and two books for children. He translated English, French and Italian poetry into Hebrew, including Rimbaud's Une Saison en Enfer and a collection of Yeats' poetry. His own poetry has been translated into 15 languages. Bernstein received the Yehuda Amichai Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.


Sudden flight

I sent you away in planes,
like a stone thrown up by a child,
all curled up, frightened, in your coat,
high above the houses and the lakes. Your face,
baying and abandoned, shadowed
by the edge of a pillow,
is circled by a void.

I sent you away and stayed behind
to do the nasty chores of loneliness:
training myself not to look in the mirror, to hurry
through another day, to bring package
after package home so as to establish
the pretense of survival.

And all this while you fly over us in doubtful contrivances,
going around and around,
refusing to land.