Shamri, Arie
SHAMRI, ARIE
SHAMRI, ARIE (1907–1978), Yiddish poet. Born into a pious family in Kaluszyn, Poland, Shamri early came under the influence of the Zionist ideology of *Ha-Shomer ha-Ẓa'ir and immigrated to Palestine in 1929, joining kibbutz *Ein Shemer, from which he derived his new name. Beginning in 1936 his poetry appeared in the Warsaw weekly Literarishe Bleter and other Yiddish journals. His first book to be translated was the Hebrew translation (by A. *Shlonsky) of Lamed-vav Shirim al Lezer Tsipres ("36 Poems about Leyzer Tsipres," 1939). After the Holocaust Shamri's poetry, filled with love for nature, displays a renewed identification with the ḥasidic world of his Polish childhood. Among the collections of his poems are In Toyer fun Teg ("In the Gate of the Days," 1947), A Shtern in Feld ("A Star in the Field," 1957), and Gezangen in Shayer ("Songs in the Barn," 1970). In 1983 his essays were collected in the volume Aynzamlung ("Gathering"). From 1966 he headed the Tel Aviv publishing house Yisroel–Bukh and among others he edited and published there Vortslen ("Roots," 1966), an anthology of prose and verse by Israeli Yiddish writers.
bibliography:
J. Glatstein, In Tokh Genumen (1956), 373–7; M. Ravitch, Mayn Leksikon, 3 (1958), 431–2; S. Bickel, Shrayber fun Mayn Dor, 2 (1965), 160–5; 3, (1970), 54–59. add. bibliography: lnyl, 8 (1981), 745–7; D. Sadan, Heymishe Ksovim, 1 (1972), 140–4.
[Sol Liptzin]