Abstract This article explores Yehuda Amichai’s reflection on the meaning of language and demonstrates how his early poetry navigates between different views on the concept of ‘mother tongue.’ Building on Jacques Derrida’s seminal essay Monolingualism of the Other, it proposes a new hermeneutic frame for interpreting Amichai’s early poetry – particularly the poems collected in Shirim 1948–1962 – through the prism of monolingualism. In order to examine Amichai’s version of Derridean monolingualism, the article offers close readings of his paradigmatic poems, such as “Be-yalduti” (“When I Was a child”) and “Va-hagirat horai lo nirg‘eah bi” (“And the Migration of My Parents Has Not Subsided in Me”), that address, both directly and indirectly, the question of language. Furthermore, this article traces the influence of the experience of immigration on the development of Amichai’s poetic thinking on language. The various lyrical manifestations of this experience, such as a mediation on the meaning of the language of the mother, or the possibility to write with an accent, reveal Amichai’s growing ethical understanding of language as something that belongs to the other. Thus, I argue that Amichai’s unique monolingualism should be understood as a poetic site of negotiation between owning and dispossessing a language.

中文翻译：

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苦涩的语言：耶胡达·阿米猜的诗意单语

摘要 本文探讨了耶胡达·阿米猜对语言意义的反思，并展示了他的早期诗歌如何在“母语”概念的不同观点之间导航。以雅克·德里达的开创性论文“他者的单一语言主义”为基础，它提出了一个新的诠释学框架，用于通过单一语言主义的棱镜来解释阿米猜的早期诗歌——尤其是 Shirim 1948-1962 年收集的诗歌。为了检验阿米猜对德里德的单语主义的版本，文章提供了他的范式诗歌的仔细阅读，例如“Be-yalduti”（“当我还是个孩子时”）和“Va-hagirat horai lo nirg'eah bi”（“我父母的迁移并没有在我身上消退”），这直接和间接地解决了语言问题。此外，本文追溯了移民经历对阿米猜语言诗意思想发展的影响。这种经历的各种抒情表现，例如对母亲语言含义的调解，或带口音写作的可能性，揭示了阿米柴对语言作为属于他者的东西日益增长的伦理理解。因此，我认为阿米猜独特的单语主义应该被理解为拥有和剥夺语言之间协商的诗意场所。揭示了阿米柴对语言作为属于他者的东西日益增长的伦理理解。因此，我认为阿米猜独特的单语主义应该被理解为拥有和剥夺语言之间协商的诗意场所。揭示了阿米柴对语言作为属于他者的东西日益增长的伦理理解。因此，我认为阿米猜独特的单语主义应该被理解为拥有和剥夺语言之间协商的诗意场所。