Amir Or, a leading Israeli poet, was born in Tel Aviv in 1956. the author of 12 volumes of poetry in Hebrew, the latest of which are “Loot” – selected poetry 1977-2013 (2013) and “Wings” (2015). His poems have been published in more than 40 languages and in 22 books
in Europe, Asia and America. He is the recipient of several national and international poetry prizes, among them the Levi Eshkol Prime Minister’s Prize, a Fulbright Award for Writers, Bernstein Prize, Oeneumi Poetry Prize 2010, the Stephan Mitrov Ljubisha international liter- ary award 2014 and the Atlas of Lyrics prize 2016.

Or studied philosophy and comparative religion at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he later lectured on Ancient Greek Religion. He has taught poetry in universities in Israel, the UK, and Japan. Amir Or is the founder of the Helicon Poetry Society and the Hebrew-Arabic Helicon Poetry School. He is editor of the poetry books series Catuv and national editor for the international poetry magazine Atlas

THE BARBARIANS (ROUND TWO)

It was not in vain that we awaited the barbarians,
it was not in vain that we gathered in the city square.
It was not in vain that our great ones put on their official robes and rehearsed their speeches for the event.
It was not in vain that we smashed our temples
and erected new ones to their gods;
as proper we burnt our books
that have nothing in them for people like that.
As the prophesy foretold, the barbarians came
and took the keys to the city from the king’s hand.
But when they came they wore the garments of the land,
and their customs were the customs of the state;
and when they commanded us in our own tongue
we no longer knew when
the barbarians had come to us.

Translated by Vivian Eden