Introduction and English Translation by Amir Livnat
The following poems, referring to the city of Győr, were written by the Israeli poet Giora Fisher. Giora’s mother, Miriam (born Irén Sugár), was born in Győr, and in previous generations his ancestors lived in the city.
Giora Fisher was born in 1951 in Moshav Avigdor, between Gedera and Ashkelon in south-western Israel, where he lives today with his wife and sons. He holds a master’s degree in Bible, and served as a Bible teacher at the high school in Be’er Tuvia. He also raised cattle and managed a large dairy farm.
As a child and teenager, he wrote songs and poems, but in his adulthood, he abandoned writing. He resumed writing after his son, Merom Fisher, fell in 2002 during an IDF operation in Jenin, in the West Bank. His first book, “In the Aftermath”, was published in 2010. Later, it was followed by the books “Life’s labour” in 2014, “What did you learn from the story” in 2017 and “At day’s bottom” in 2022. In 2011, he receives a prize for debut poetry from the city of Ramat Gan in Israel.
Giora visited Győr, his mother’s hometown, several times, and embedded his impressions in the two poems presented here. His poems refer to the fate of his ancestors and the rest of the Jews of Győr during the Holocaust, combined with Giora’s visit to the city years later. These poems draw a line between past, present and future, and between Hungary and Israel.
These issues are also relevant to the remembrance days for the victims of the Holocaust, and the fallen soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Actions of Terrorism, which have recently been commemorated. These remembrance days bear a recent difficult meaning since October 7th – following these events we are all survivors, and a bereaved nation. Giora’s poems resonate and shout as we remember the fallen and longing for the safe return of the captives and the kidnapped. May we never know more sorrow.
