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Yair Hurvitz

יאיר הורביץ

Yair Hurvitz (1941-1988) was born in Tel Aviv and lived in his native city his entire life. He earned his living as a typesetter and proofreader. Known as one of the “Tel Aviv poets” centered around the literary journals Achshav and Siman Kriah, together with Meir Wieseltier and Yona Wallach, he published several collections of poems. His special affinity for Scottish verse led him to translate and anthologize it.
Hurvitz’s introverted poetry makes extensive use of nature imagery as figurative representations of his inner life and emotions. His father’s death, his mother’s sorrow, his own loves and losses are all central themes in his writing.

Hurvitz’s early work is marked by traditional syntax, but after the mid-1960s he adopted a method of verbal collage in which he achieved shading and tonal surprise through a network of alliterations which is often disrupted. Symbols of despair are complemented by symbols of hope until his later poems, where despondency dominates. His early death abruptly ended the career of one of the leading poets of the 1970s.

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