Ramy Ditzanny

(Israel, 1950 - 2012)

Biography

With seven books of poetry, Ramy Ditzanny's oeuvre includes a wide range of types and topics: a marked tendency toward narrative exists alongside sensitive lyric poetry, and in addition to children's verses and love poems, one finds pointed protest poetry too.

Ditzanny is the recipient of numerous prizes from the Tel Aviv Foundation for the Arts, the Jerusalem Foundation, ACUM, and the Israeli government (the Prime Minster's Prize). His work has been translated into English, French, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croat, and Spanish. His books include Poems from the Ward of the Crippled in Spirit (1984), Love, only love (1987), Convulsion (1998), Sandland (1998), and Bleeding Land (2003).

Ditzanny writes of himself: “I was born in Tel Aviv. In grade school, I wrote the most beautiful essays. In high school I discovered my love for geometry and the exact sciences. Due to the curse of these talents I studied at the Technion High School. I left in the middle (in disgust) to serve in the army in the Negev. There I learned to be a tourist guide specializing in the desert. Under pressure from my family, I returned to finish a degree at the Technion and from there I continued to Jerusalem to study psychology. Afterwards I left for the London Film School, returning at the beginning of the Lebanon War, to difficult war poems in the newspaper and a difficult book of poems. At present I am an exile in Jerusalem (a difficult city). Most of my life I’ve been a not very smart seeker of my own way, [a person] for whom knowledge became an impediment. I even started to write poems I never showed anyone at a late age. Only recently have I caught on to the fact I've been a poet from birth.”