Perambra: Walking down memory lane, noted Israel poet Amir Or relived the moments with his late good friend and writer T P Rajeevan by taking a stroll through the latter’s courtyard and his village paths at Narayamkulam and attending “Thira” at Velliyoor temple. 

Amir was there to bid goodbye to Rajeevan at his home in Narayamkulam in 2022. This time, Amir has stayed at Rajeevan’s home, where the photos of the duo taken at the Israel poetry fest are hung on its walls, for two weeks as part of his mission to write a new novel in a peaceful ambience. Rajeevan’s home was a meeting place for the writers from across the world.  Amir also recited his poem at the “Kithab Festival” organized by the Yuva Kala Sahithi here in Kozhikode. 

The friendship that began at a literary fest grew to such a level that Amir translated Rajeevan’s poems into Hebrew and similarly, Rajeevan also made some of Amir’s poems familiar to Malayalis. Around eight times he visited Kerala and each time revived his friendship with Rajeevan who once took him to witness the Muthappan festival. Most of Amir’s works dealt with human bondings, village culture, and myths. He has even translated some of the Mahabharata stories and is now on a mission to transcribe Bhagavat Geeta into Hebrew. 

For Amir, poems are nothing but riots. He doesn’t think that writing for the publicity of any ideology or government is literature. Writers should be the inventors of new truths. They should keep questioning, he added.
Although a large number of people are there who stand for peace between Israel and Palestine, a mighty group is also there to spread the seeds of hatred, Amir said in a question on recent developments in his area.  

Amir is also the founder of the Helicon Poetry Society which stands for the growth of Israel poetry. He has also founded the Helicon Poetry School to encourage the translation of poems in Arabic and Hebrew. He has also worked as the national coordinator of a UN project, ‘Poets for Peace’.  

His works have been translated into around 50 languages. Amir’s dedication to literature is still on at the age of 67 years old.