I was waiting for the obituaries on Zach – it took people  a week to get it together and then everybody started talking.  Two main points that were repeated with the greatest frequency: 1. he was a very nasty man 2. He absolutely changed the face  of Hebrew poetry and even the way language is used.  I want to add another – his magic is impossible to translate.  I know he’s been translated, but I can’t find his magic in translation.   How do I know?  I’ve failed again and again.  His ability to fill simple words of every day speech with meaning and feeling was unparalleled.  here is one example.  

In the evening

when my girl said

get going

I went down the street to go

And I would go

and get confounded

go and get confounded

i opened the book of “Shirim Shomin” – Different poems, or Strange Poems – in 1974 – and this was the first poem, my first experience with poetry that could be called ‘modern’ in Hebrew.  No rhyme, no meter.  Only an incredibly beautiful sound that leads to incredibly beautiful sadness.