Windmill of Yemin Moshe: A Poem by Yehuda Amichai

Windmill of Yemin Moshe: A Poem by Yehuda Amichai

The post presents “Windmill of Yemin Moshe,” a poem written by iconic Israeli poet, Yehuda Amichai, about the famous windmill build by Sir Moses Montefiore in Yemin Moshe, the Jerusalem neighbourhood in which Amichai lived. This poem was published in “Poems of Jerusalem,” translated by Glenda Abramson and Tudor Parfitt. 

Windmill of Yemin Moshe

This windmill never ground flour.
It ground holy air and Bialik’s
Birds of longing, it ground
Words and ground time, it ground
Rain and even shells
But it never ground flour.

Now it’s discovered us,
And grinds our lives day by day
Making out of us the flour of peace
Making out of us the bread of peace
For the generation to come.