Yehuda Amichai’s “An Arab Shepherd is Searching for His Goat on Mount Zion”

Yehuda Amichai’s poem, “An Arab Shepherd is Searching for His Goat on Mount Zion,” touches on some delicate but powerful points. The two characters in the story are described as being on opposite hills; Both are searching for something important to them. The Arab man is searching for his goat, and the Jewish father is searching for his son. They are both in their “Temporary failure,” a description that begins a subtle threading of connections between what seem at first to be two people divided on opposite hills. Even though the two seem to be far apart on one level, they end up  having more in common than you’d think. Their voices are “met above” and they finally find what they have been looking for. The child and the goat are found in the same bush. The poem also nods at the idea that children should not be caught up in the issues of their parents, in “the wheels of the ‘Had Gadya’ machine.” In the end, the poem draws a picture of two people who turn out to be very much alike.