Ein Yahav
Ein Yahav - meaning Summary
Hope as Defensive Barbed Wire
The speaker recounts a rainy drive to Ein Yahav in the Arava Desert and the unexpected meeting of life there: date palms, tamarisk trees, and people cultivating them. The poem reframes hope as defensive and painful—likening it to barbed wire and a minefield—to argue that hope’s function in harsh environments is protective rather than comforting. It suggests resilience requires vigilance and boundaries to keep despair at bay.
Read Complete AnalysesA night drive to Ein Yahav in the Arava Desert, a drive in the rain. Yes, in the rain. There I met people who grow date palms, there I saw tamarisk trees and risk trees, there I saw hope barbed as barbed wire. And I said to myself: That's true, hope needs to be like barbed wire to keep out despair, hope must be a mine field.
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