He was born Carmi Charny in New York City. Hebrew was his mother tongue and his family used it as the spoken language of their home. He moved to Israel just before the outbreak of the Israeli War of Independence. He died in 1994.

Carmi's books translated into English include Blemish and Dream (1951), There are no black Flowers (1953), The Brass Serpent (1961), Somebody Like You (1971), and At The Stone Of Losses (1983).

He was also a leading and prolific translator of Shakespeare to Hebrew, his translations include Midsummer Nights Dream, Measure For Measure, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing and Othello. He co-edited The Modern Hebrew Poem Itself, together with Stanley Burnshaw and Ezra Spicehandler. His major critical work was as editor and translator of The Penguin book of Hebrew Verse, a chronological anthology that spans 3,000 years of written Hebrew poetry.

T. Carmi was also the pseudonymous co-author jointly with Shoshana Heyman, "Kush" (short for the acronym of Carmi ve(and) Shoshana - in hebr.) of the eternally classic Israeli children's book "Shmulikipod." A sick boy laments that he has no one for company but the donkeys on his pyjamas. Relief comes in the form of a visit from a somewhat short-tempered hedgehog (Hebr. "kipod") named Shmulik. After a few messy misadventures that never leave the playpen, Shmulik flees; the book concludes, "And Shmulikipod walked, and walked, and walked, and walked ...."