A poem

[Luís]

I just came across a poem by Yehuda Amichai. I wonder if someone would be able to post the original Hebrew version here...

Estatísticas

Por cada homem enfurecido há sempre
dois ou três que o acalmam com palmadinhas nas costas,
por cada chorão, muitos mais limpadores de lágrimas,
por cada homem feliz, uma profusão de infelizes
a querer aquecer-se no calor da sua alegria.

E todas as noites pelo menos um homem
não consegue encontrar o caminho de casa
ou a sua casa mudou-se para outro lugar
e ele vagueia pelas ruas,
supérfluo.

Uma vez estava com o meu filho pequeno na estação
e um autocarro vazio passou por nós. O meu filho disse:
“Olha, um autocarro cheio de gente vazia.”

Statistics

For every man in a rage there are always
two or three back-patters who will calm him,
for every weeper, many more tear-wipers,
for every happy man, plenty of sad ones
who want to warm themselves at his happiness.

And every night at least one man
can't find his way home
or his home has moved to another place
and he runs around in the streets,
superfluous.

Once I was waiting with my little son at the station
as an empty bus went by. My son said:
"Look, a bus full of empty people".

Also, what's exactly the Hebrew word for "poem". My dictionary has two entries: שיר and פואמה. Isn't שיר "song"? How to distinguish the two?

[NulNuk]

there is no specific word for song or poem in Hebrew ,
the same word (shir) means both song and poem .

[Babelfish]

I have a book of poems by Yhuda Amihay but this one appears not to be there.
BTW I must wonder, wouldn't quoting it be like posting copyrighted stuff?

[Luís]

I have a book of poems by Yhuda Amihay but this one appears not to be there.
BTW I must wonder, wouldn't quoting it be like posting copyrighted stuff?

I have no idea, but I don't think posting a poem (and identifying the author clearly) is breaking copyright laws (which country's anyway?). Just as you can quote from a book, as long as you cite the source. Is reciting a poem in public also breaking copyright laws? Have a look at this thread, apparently Unilang moderators had no problem with it, although they're quite touchy about this issue.
I'm sure you can find this poem online easily (I had no troubles finding the English version using Google), so maybe you can locate it and post the link to the page that has it (no problems with copyright issues this way).

[Radagast]

Err... I've failed to find it in google actually, Luis. I looked for "יהודה עמיחי" and "ובכל לילה" and found nothing at all. Then I looked for "ובכל לילה לפחות אדם אחד" and found nothing again.. that's after looking in wikipedia or looking for the poem in English to tell me from which book it was taken (which wasn't written anywehere)

Google in Hebrew isn't really as good as the English one basically becasue there aren't enoguh pages in Hebrew. I suppose no one wrote his poem in Hebrew online.

[Luís]

It seems no-one can find it...

Thanks anyway!