In my book The Heartache of Dual Roots, (1) I dealt with the unique qualities of the literary generation of poets from Islamic lands belonging to the "declaration of the State" generation--or more specifically to the "generation of transition"--that underwent a cultural upheaval and in turn created a cultural upheaval in the Hebrew literary scene. (2) Among other things, I presented the "heartache of dual roots" poetry of this group (which includes Erez Biton, Ronny Somek, Dror Peretz-Banai, Balfour and Herzl Haqaq, Joseph Ozer, Sammy Shalom Shitrit, Eli Amir, Sammy Michael, Shimon Balas, and others), whose own personal social and cultural crisis emerges in their literary work, and whose description of Israel's landscape carries a note of protest as a projection of their own absorption process. An exception to this phenomenon may be found in a group of poets of Yemenite origin (Ratzon Halevi, Tuvia Sulami, Mordechai Tabib, and members of the second and third generation such as Aaron Almog, Avivit Levi Kapah, and others) who despite the difficulties they encountered upon their arrival in Israel, describe the country's landscape in a manner reminiscent of the work of the anonymous Yemenite poets of previous generations. (3) If protest appears in their work, it is in relation to an event grounded in a specific time and place and not as a general phenomenon. (4) One can sense in their poetry a real affinity with the country's landscape, which they dreamt about, prayed about, and chanted about throughout the generations. Now their abstract longing for the land in the Diaspora was replaced by a concrete and sensual attachment to the landscapes that surrounded them in their new home, as if they had been born to work the land. An explanation of this is that they actually considered the Land of Israel to be their homeland; for them Yemen was the Diaspora, and their poetry expresses the relative ease with which they left it behind. (5) Anthony Afeyah claimed, as did others, that travel to a distant place results in self-revelation. Conflicts of identity are resolved abroad. Transferring the conflict to a foreign country strengthens the affinity with the homeland. The powerful yearning for the Land of Israel from their place of residence in the Diaspora and their strong feeling of belonging despite the conflicts and hardships they experienced on their way to the land may be explained by how they lived in their country of origin. (6)
