God Full Of Mercy Poem by Yehuda Amichai

God Full Of Mercy

Rating: 3.4


God-Full-of-Mercy, the prayer for the dead.
If God was not full of mercy,
Mercy would have been in the world,
Not just in Him.
I, who plucked flowers in the hills
And looked down into all the valleys,
I, who brought corpses down from the hills,
Can tell you that the world is empty of mercy.
I, who was King of Salt at the seashore,
Who stood without a decision at my window,
Who counted the steps of angels,
Whose heart lifted weights of anguish
In the horrible contests.

I, who use only a small part
Of the words in the dictionary.

I, who must decipher riddles
I don't want to decipher,
Know that if not for the God-full-of-mercy
There would be mercy in the world,
Not just in Him.


Translated from the Hebrew by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Julia Luber 03 March 2019

I don't know about this. Slightly passive-aggressive and bitter…..strange.

1 1 Reply
Paresh Chakra 09 December 2018

You are very great poet thanks for sharing this poem

1 1 Reply
Madhabi Banerjee 02 October 2016

yes god is full of mercy. I agree.

3 1 Reply
Phanice Wamukota 23 June 2015

He sure is full of mercy, no wonder abortions, murder, theft with violence, injustice et al is no longer news in our societies. Yet, as long as He is full of mercy, the world is in safe hands.

5 2 Reply
Rochelle Cashdan 18 May 2008

As always, I wonder what the translators have had to strain out, but of course I'm grateful to them for offering the poem.

15 1 Reply
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Yehuda Amichai

Yehuda Amichai

Würzburg / Germany
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