| Rereading all the translated volumes of the poetry of the Israeli | Yehuda Amichai...I’ve become more than ever convinced that he | is one of the biggest, most essential, durable poetic voices of this | past century—one of the most intimately alive and human, wise, humorous, true, loving, inwardly free and resourceful, at home in every place and in every human situation. One of the real treasures. —Ted Hughes If literature were music what a wonderful festival there might be: we could hear Yehuda’s Poems of Jerusalem, James Joyce’s | Dubliners, and the sonnets of the great nineteenth-century Romanesco poet G.G.Belli. These works about everyday vision- | ary stuff keep the human language alive. In this book, published by the Sheep Meadow Press, Amichai’s Love Poems and Poems of Jerusalem, previously published separately, are joined. The reader | | ‘will find that these two books, like lovers, are difficult to separate. —Stanley Moss | ‘The kind of resonantly simple poetry that is the work of a || great poet. | —The New York Times | Yehuda Amichai is commonly regarded as Israel’s major poet and | one of the major poets of our time. He was born in Germany in 1924. His family left for Israel in 1936. Amichai fought with | the British Army in World War Il and then in three Israeli wars. He is married, has three children, and so far one grandchild. The Sheep Meadow Press Riverdale-on-Hudson, New YorkYehuda Amichai Poems of Jerusalem and Also by Yehuda Amichai Poems Songs of Jerusalem and Myself Amen Love Poems Time Great Tranquillity: Questions and Answers A Bilingual Edition wy Travels The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai Even a Fist Was Once an Open Palm with Fingers E) The Sheep Meadow Press Riverdale-on-Hudson. New YorkThe original Hebrew versions of these poems are reprinted from the following collections by permission of Schocken Publishing House, Tel Aviv, Israel iby jar anna ar 93 minke ath nan dy xin wyn2 way ,1962 —1948 OW. amawm mbxv ara The English translations of these poems appeared in the following collections and are reprinted by permission of Yehuda Amichai: Amen copyright © 1977 by Yehuda Amichai; Poems copyright © 1968 by Yehuda Amichai, English translation copyright © 1968, 1969 by Assia Gutmann; Songs of Jerusalem and Myself copyright © 1973 by Yehuda Amichai, English translation copyright © 1973 by Harold Schimmel; Time copyright © 1979 by ‘Yehuda Amichai; Love Poems copyright © 1981 by Yehuda Amichai; Great Tranquility: Questions and Answers copyright © 1983 by Yehuda Amichai; The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai English translation copyright © 1986 by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell. LOVE POEMS. Copyright © 1981 by Yehuda Amichai. POEMS OF JERUSALEM. Copy- Fight © 1988 by Yehuda Amichai. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of ‘America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical ar- ticles and reviews. Alll inquiries and permission requests should be addressed to: The Sheep Meadow Press, P. O. Box 1345, Riverdale-on-Hudson, New York 10471 Distributed by Independent Literary Publisher's Association P.O. Box 816 Oak Park, IL 60603 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ‘Amichai, Yehuda (Poems. English & Hebrew. Selections} Poems of Jerusalem ; and, Love poems : a bilingual edition / Yehuda Amichai Pp. om. English and Hebrew. First work originally published: New York : Perennial Library, c198 nally published: New York : Harper & Row, c1981 ISBN 1-878818-19-8 : $12.95 1. Amichai, Yehuda—Translations into English. 2. Jerusalem—Poetry. 3. Love poetry, Hebrew. 4. Love poetry, Hebrew—Translations into English. I. Title: Poems of Jerusa- lem. Il. Title: Love poems. PIS0S4.A6SA2 1992 892.4" 16—de20 92-31558 cr ; Ind work origi- Contents Poems of Jerusalem 3. Allthe Generations Before Me owow nm 92 5 Jerusalem our 7 If | Forget Thee, Jerusalem DrowTY ,TNIWR ON 11 Like the Inner Wall of a House mea bw on YP D> 15 Out of Three or Four ina Room TINA AYITN IK TWD 17 Letter of Recommendation mydon ans 19 This is My Mother's House 7X VI AT 23 In Rabbi Kook Street Pp an aM 25 1 Lived for Two Months in Quiet Abu Tor No 13x2 OWI ND 29 The United Nations’ Command in Jerusalem pm bowrra sexi maa on mpep 33 Suicide Attempts of Jerusalem prburn oy nrtaxnan mr 35° Sleep in Jerusalem pourra mw 37 Mayor YI UND39 65 87 91 93 95 97 99 101 103 105 107 from Jerusalem 1967 1967 ow Sfrom Songs of Zion the Beautiful mowry pry RW Songs of Continuity yong The Diameter of the Bomb myypn wip These Words oem oy The Little Park Planted Snow pa Jerusalem is a Cradle wy ry Dow At an Archaeological Site meno Vpn > In This Valley mn poy Ecology of Jerusalem mourn by mnnpR Damascus Gate in Jerusalem ow 10 The Windmill in Yemin Moshe Twn para mnva An Arab Shepherd is Searching for His Goat on Mount Zion yrs aaa won Iw AN vi 109 i M3 HS 7 121 125 127 129 131 133 135 vii Jerusalem is Full of Used Jews pvayD OP aRyD OWT Lying in Wait for Happiness WR? RDI — MAMA MIMI. I Don’t Know If History Repeats Itself DANN PNVOAT OR VTP IPR Two Girls Live in an Old House Mmying rma yon 33 Psalm nam You Mustn't Show Weakness abn mind TOR from Laments for the Fallen in the War Manbaa onan by mrp In the Old City npnyn yy3 The Heavens are the Lord's Heavens (7d Pn ODT And So You Find Yourself Wr ANK > A Tourist mn Tourists omnLove Poems 139 145 149 151 153 155 157 159 165 167 169 171 173 wn? ow TY Six Songs for Tamar TYR? OW Songs for a Woman WN aPw Jacob and the Angel Depp mitt Nw? Savage Memories Pp ayy a1m73 In Rabbi Kook Street wy? Wy Now in the Storm “ery mg Returning from Ein Gedi Ayn gS Prya nen from The Last Benjamin of Todela “AKA Wy 7p) OX If with a Bitter Mouth papa 312 In My Time, In Your Place TQ TRAE UT 20 A Pity. We Were Such a Good Invention wu nya "99 Like Our Bodies’ Imprint DRT TST Y¥RKD In the Middle of This Century viii 177 179 181 185 187 189 191 193 195 197 199 my Tourist AN VW Quick and Bitter my aqy2 On This Evening area Sw TW? TEND An Old Toolshed TW AQIS Nyy Advice for Good Love m3 17 By I Passed a House WH WRT My Head, My Head myia nimy 197 Ab Oy These Words, Like Heaps of Feathers "D2 WKR Late in Life TH PRD In This Valley m3 7p T? On the Wall of a House 7D DDI MHYIT OTS My God, the Soul Ma7D AVIS TW A Majestic Love Song205 207 209 211 213 215 217 219 223 225 227 229 AD? oIpR? Fwy Outing at Some Beautiful Place 77 77s oye Once a Great Love Tos yw Love Song Mytda may AyD A Czech Refugee in London AW 7 DWRNYA DW People Use Each Other AQT MN 399 A Dog After Love AQT 137? M7 omaw dy raTd To Speak About Changes Was to Speak Love np 799 OKT Haarlem, a Dead Story 2177) WRI Ruth, What Is Happiness? anjn Letter AY NIywW4Iy2 With Sad Slyness MORTR AQT Ideal Love DIYIVA TW Sleep in Jerusalem 231 233 235 237 239 241 243 247 257 263 xi TQ? NW White Negress maw 199 Just As It Was ayes v3: os Your Hair Dried Last DN? WIYT UNITS WP During Our Love Houses Were Completed Tyas many Love Gifts mr yy Ina Foreign Country Seewy rN TANT at? Tom A Song of Praise to the Lovely Couple Varda and Schimmel TIPS WY) from The Achziv Poems Ops Da. TWA from The Buenos Aires Poems Oy vinAa Mrs 7173 Ballad in the Streets of Buenos AiresPOEMS OF JERUSALEMsapby nity dp | ont WIA YW NAT 5D DoYWIND [RD OPINY "1D TYDP AYA “ARTY Tova I TYEA-PD 19> ,NNX N32 ODN OY RIT WN AT =p 7 ay nie P22 TPN IW sDNAY TATTR NRIYD "NYY “DW NY 2 NE NW? PIE I DiNI33T 72 NY OP? TD OF OP TRY PP NYY ont ARDY <2m9 TT Wr DVDR NY Nx AY ont 99327? XY TRY NNwD sPWIND 17 YR 7D WE. sTay2 nix ON? PT XY STAM DOT PT 3p Mt All the Generations Before Me All the generations before me donated me, bit by bit, so that I’d be erected all at once here in Jerusalem, like a house of prayer or charitable institution. It binds. My name’s my donors’ name. It binds. T’m approaching the age of my father’s death. My last will’s patched with many patches. Ihave to change my life and death daily to fulfill all the prophecies prophesied for me. So they're not lies. It binds. I've passed forty. There are jobs I cannot get because of this. Were I in Auschwitz they would not have sent me out to work, but gassed me straightaway. It binds. Translated by Harold SchimmelPAY V¥Z Ia by 2OP 9Y Thnk TxD MEW 71°33 DINKY 12? PT ari 9y gap “TBR yt ny 73 ayo TRAY] PI DY Tey — BAND TERA 7 ANIKOMPRT, roy TINT D499 sDONT ADD PyyT -DPyT EID yD “Dn OY Sway 1p nny UMRY HNY Jerusalem On a roof in the Old City laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight: the white sheet of a woman who is my enemy, the towel of a man who is my enemy, to wipe off the sweat of his brow. In the sky of the Old City akite. At the other end of the string, achild Ican't see because of the wall. We have put up many flags, they have put up many flags. To make us think that they’re happy. To make them think that we're happy. Translated by Stephen MitchellDWT ANDWY ON DZ INDY ON ope mewn PoNDY TIA Pm NWA saPR? apA poxDY “oTA wT? PE ng sdr2yT Ny Top NPA WA WT NX NI owen ng apn PY NAPA ore, N2YR oxy NIWA sntoin? SNK XD NAD XY DID TN OX DY? N2OK XO Dr? NOK XD open NYA Poy non 0% 92 NW SDR NE IVR If 1 Forget Thee, Jerusalem If I forget thee, Jerusalem, Then let my right be forgotten. Let my right be forgotten, and my left remember. Let my left remember, and your right close And your mouth open near the gate. Ishall remember Jerusalem And forget the forest — my love will remember, Will open her hair, will close my window, Will forget my right, Will forget my left. If the west wind does not come T'll never forgive the walls, Or the sea, or myself. Should my right forget, My left shall forgive, I shall forget all water, I shall forget my mother.sD2YIT, TNPWE OR PDT Nw? PY DR MDW ANA Day “op som AYN MAW OED Do7pa 7 NT Yip? -DOR? IR. If I forget thee, Jerusalem, Let my blood be forgotten. Ishall touch your forehead, Forget my own, My voice change For the second and last time To the most terrible of voices — Or silence. Translated by Assia Gutmannma by BP aD m3 Y DIB VP tp OUT Monge Ine TN Tey ORND "YY NY NYY 7D wnn2W vyn> TIDY "pp 17a PIR OPI SRY X? OYIE? MP WH NX npypap NZI : DB PTD OP ny AN N27) Yng TIT nar mp3 om og Oty yD Ly. px ay pin 41290 OMS -yBY 37 oT OND oy yp Xow A17Q ADI PIP OPTI Like the Inner Wall of a House Ifound myself Suddenly, and too early in life, Like the inner wall of house Which has become an outside wall after wars and devastations. almost forget How it is to be inside. No pain anymore, No love. Near and far Are both at the same distance from me" And equal. I never imagined what happens to colors. Their fate is man’s fate: light blue still skumbers In the memory of dark blue and night. Paleness Sighs out of a purple dream. A wind brings smells From far off And itself has no smell. And the leaves of the hatzav* die Long before their white flower, Which never knows About the greenness in spring and dark love. * Hatzav — a wild flower whose leaves grow and die in spring and whose white flower grows only in autumn. iWY PID WOT? YY RY lift my eyes to the mountains. Now I understand 722 NBD APR .HYy nXy? aD ‘What it means to lift eyes, what a heavy load SDPITT OYIAVAT IDR TT RIT Itis. But those hard longings, DY? EI AWN TYRANT That pain-never-again-to-be-inside! Translated by Y.A. & Ted Hughes R 13Tne TYAS 1x APH TINT AYTW 1x AY >W send TY Tely IHX PAA Dyip pa "7 ny ney? MD <1Y232 MDI87 nx] INYWY OW TYP} -by2? Iv nivaye? 32 ONIN TIND AYTW 1K AYIWD sPona PY tpt TINY PeA -rysayn? 2p YoxT Nyy -DbaT MIND sPRIB A OTA nivipa PDA or *73 NINID} TTY "72 N1ayd waWATY ni773 ODN PRY IAI? NN TRV, -7app PR NaN? O72 Out of Three or Four ina Room Out of three or four ina room One is always standing at the window. Forced to see the injustice among the thorns, The fires on the hill. And people who left whole Are brought home in the evening, like small change. Out of three or four ina room One is always standing at the window. Hair dark above his thoughts. Behind him, the words. And in front of him, voices, wandering, without luggage. Hearts without provision, prophecies without water And big stones put there And staying closed, like letters With no addresses, and no one to receive them. Translated by Assia Gutmann 1Sny2pn an3 THN PR MPLA onen2 .oryIVA Cay Paya kaT Ney yy join? vaanny "22 Tea ay OF vea hen myn Naya? Dip OY TH TTD ingio mMPx a van 7a -yan ony?n? nonD myn MEY NPPy x? 1 Oy Ten Yep TYDT IAD! 7 Na sa ye Xo DYED DY NYT yRRT sangha Oya mh? NAP ONT nt Torr ARYD "NIK MPWTY ,aR vn TED OYIvy "NBT YN" WW fomn) 2.23 on? WY. PE TR ADVANI XP DpeM DURY TPR ID No TMD APY nipoy) nizpypp ONDya 18 This is My Mother's House ‘This is my mother’s house. The plant which started to climb on it in my childhood has grown since and clings to its wall. But I was torn away long ago. Mother, in pain you gave birth to me, in pain lives your son. His sadness is combed and groomed, his happiness well dressed. With his dream he earns his bread and with his bread his dream. The average annual rainfall does not touch him and degrees of temperature will pass by him in weeping shade. Oh my mother, who presented me with a first welcome drink in this world: L’haim, l’haim,* my son! Thaven‘t forgotten a thing, but my life has become calm and deep like a second gulp deep in the throat, Not like the first one, with sucking smacking, happy lips. * Lhaim — “To your health!” in Hebrew. 19P23 PAH MAT2 Py 7 92) NtRD POR INT NIT NE yA <2 WIN AQ WIA NAT OPWIN-A22 1H? Translated by Stephen Mitchell 26DPWIND I¥IT aD ONT NPE DyI DT OWT ON 2W9T NT 1223 M32 Oy PIM DNs OapHA 27392 OOK OP TINA ,C-Ypopy Ninaya emipotyy ong niviay OPN Ip ATPRD DID AD? OPN ONT OT TPRTD NVY? OPW oP 2y Dy DEY NuPKT Tyya nto ken? wey ONT TI NPAT D2 OPE sO -oIwRD .URY "73,799 NNIY NIH ninan nina niyyin ninyy71 sD] PDK OTD oixp nitgp NWA) OF? W2 >> TAN TP 2Y BWP TY 1 aw *Y Ty WY AW) B97 aw W197 wyin? AnyT Nia, 72 WE) (DI AMD TAD Magy nin Nwpop OPE] OMIT NY APPT oP OA 222 yA 28 The United Nations’ Command in Jerusalem ‘The mediators, the peace makers, the compromisers, the pacifiers Live in the white house And receive their nourishment from far away, Through twisting channels, through dark veins, like a foetus. And their secretaries are lipsticked and laughing, And their immune chauffeurs wait below, like horses in a stable, And the trees whose shadow shades them have their roots in disputed territory, And the delusions are children who go out into the fields to find cyclamen And do not come back. And the thoughts circle above, uneasily, like scout planes, And they take photographs, and return, and develop the film In dark, sad rooms. And I know that they have very heavy chandeliers, And the boy that I was sits on them and swings Inand out, in and out, and out, and does not come back. Later on, the night will bring Rusty and crooked conclusions out of our ancient lives, And above all the houses the music Will gather all the scattered things, 29NWI PD OMNB NyP2AT TD NYP AWD NyD .TTAVOT WR? DW 132 ON srryhy O--TIPD we MIR NHPAN ROK — niwR? han? Dept ix ob *2y nish) sot] ADP? BAD] 30 Like a hand gathering crumbs off the table After the meal while the talk continues And the children are already asleep. And hopes come to me like daring sailors, Like discoverers of continents To an island, And they rest for a day or two, And then they sail away. Translated by Assia Gutmann 3moby by niaNNTT niaho2 DIDPVP TPR 1RZ NDAD DIWy 2 PLT .OPYT NX 920 1p DBT "WP NY NIP ID sory PY NTTBRHAT NPY} /3NB PWN Bw NY wT Ux OND TING OT 12? P28 PY 7OR OTT 3? 2¥H X? oPiy? .ninn oy -31] DW TOI NT AR 32 Suicide Attempts of Jerusalem Tears, here, don't soften the eyes. They only polish the hardness of faces, like rock. Suicide attempts of Jerusalem: She tried again on the ninth of Ab.* She tried in red and in fire and in slow destruction by wind and white dust. She'll never succeed; but she'll try again and again. Translated by Harold Schimmel * The anniversary of the destruction of the temple. 33:13] Oy Tiy2 maya 222 oy nad ypIN yyPa? Ny Veto] PHI Ny TYR Joop Nay? INT NY ND -TOHT BZ ODI OID WR TR TPE aD Y OAPY IB ADIND Pay MAR MPAT ron P92 TEN aay TARY "DP AADA® DU IY "DR SDIQK Wy OPA TY PTH AWW we ooYATS -DY AY PND OF 7g ID ning Uz¥RY ODI sPy 79 HOY WY? -Dipinga ARIM ANA NWA Sabna man ya AND WR Dw pi Xo -DIND Iyia TAN"? 34 Sleep in Jerusalem While a chosen people become a nation like all the nations, building its houses, paving its highways, breaking open its earth for pipes and water, we lie inside, in the low house, late offspring of this old landscape. The ceiling is vaulted above us with love and the breath of our mouth is as it was given us and as we shall give it back. Sleep is where there are stones. In Jerusalem there is sleep. The radio brings day-tunes from a land where there is day. And words that here are bitter, like last year’s almond on a tree, are sung in a far country, and sweet. And like a fire in the hollowed trunk of an olive tree an eternal heart is burning red not far from the two sleepers. Translated by Harold Schimmel 35YY URI nbq? xan ayy OWT PYT WRA sRUT RT 2NND PY UNI OW TP PR 2g yy mM AMA aN 2303 OAD HN NPR? AYA sDPNZT PK Drag by Done mrxgT Daxy 103 DWNT IR TAY? Toy 36 Mayor It’s sad To be the Mayor of Jerusalem. It is terrible. How can any man be the mayor of a city like that? ‘What can he do with her? He will build, and build, and build. And at night The stones of the hills round about Will crawl down Towards the stone houses, Like wolves coming To howl at the dogs Who have become men’s slaves. Translated by Assia Gutmann 371967 DWT Tin x 77 PID "YOY YT OTe 2Y UR!T Ny nw? -PINAD NII VY NA Vy PiPA Pong pny .oayyD -ATy maa mam by ntion7 ntsaye7 yae STAMP. PPB 23? THD DINTR Dry oy OYE "AYDY ving “AYOYY ANT TW THT IW PY PAA AMT 7a AND TPH? pana OW AK PNB? 48 with longing: lia Capitolina, #lia, Alia. She comes to any man who calls her at night, alone. But we know who comes to whom. 9 On an open door a sign hangs: Closed. How do you explain it? Now the chain is free at both ends: there is no prisoner and no warden, no dog and no master. The chain will gradually turn into wings. How do you explain it? Ah well, you'll explain it. 10 Jerusalem is short and crouched among its hills, unlike New York, for example. Two thousand years ago she crouched in the starting-line position. All the other cities went out, for long laps in the arena of time, they won or lost, and died. Jerusalem remained in the starting-crouch: all the victories are clenched inside her hidden inside her. All the defeats. Her strength grows and her breathing is calm for a race even beyond the arena. 49| | {YONI PA RT wil = is always in the middle, DIY PT OWI .¥ID NW protected and fortified. People were supposed DWN OPR) 123 yINva wan to feel secure in that, and they don't. sTL TOP ITWY INN ORY OTWD ‘When they go out, after a long time, pwn OTHaND? nhyp nhyty caves are formed for the new solitaries. DWT PY VTP TAR m9 What do you know about Jerusalem. MDW PIT? PIE X? ADK You don't need to understand languages; .DHD NII TT 72 NNW 77 they pass through everything as if through the ruins of houses. -D1Y] IDX NIN OF OTD People are a wall of moving stones. 221997 DD IYER TR But even in the Wailing Wall TOR MoD MIDAYY OQ PR] NP Thaven't seen stones as sad as these. The letters of my pain are illuminated like the name of the hotel across the street. What awaits me and what doesn’t await me. ian 27 DWP PNYND WV "INP Tas 22 TEND ROY TDA >? MANDY > n Jerusalem stone is the only stone that can feel pain. It has a network of nerves. a3 p i> TNT ond From time to time Jerusalem crowds into WHAT OTR TIp Ota Nt>pi Mass protests like the tower of Babel. sM¥Ip) Ntoin IN) OI But with huge clubs God-the-Police beats her down: houses are razed, walls flattened, and afterward the city disperses, muttering rnngn TIN, PYT IW WENN 7D WR] nvoon OWTAB-nipyy) ANA Niven pND PY ANIN PADD "WL Ten? "NIWAB WY 77M] wm AYPAQ HO OFF Dy OAT? NY TO I oath -magTy> .OMBy 7K MIDy r2y oy DON PAD ANI TPZ -W 72 WN O97 Ny HI? TW IW oP AR 3a] TAD pon nim OWT J4 In the distances of valleys someone rapped iron against stone but the echo erects large, different things in the air. Above the houses — houses with houses above them. This is all of history. This learning in schools without roof and without walls and without chairs and without teachers. This learning in the absolute outside, a learning short as a single heartbeat. All of it. 15 Iand Jerusalem are like a blind man and a cripple. She sees for me out to the Dead Sea, to the End of Days. And I hoist her up on my shoulders and walk blind in my darkness underneath. 16 On this bright autumn day lestablish Jerusalem once again. The foundation-scrolls are flying in the air, birds, thoughts. God is angry with me because I always force him to create the world once again from chaos, light, second day, until man, and back to the beginning. 5Sr TPPAYT PHT D¥ Yt WPBB apa? — OAT INS AYN oy SPR TOY AB a Inthe morning the shadow of the Old City falls on the New. In the afternoon — vice versa. Nobody profits. The muezzin’s prayer vavby win 33 99 MysTaND is wasted on the new houses. The ringing -DP¥DIP] OMHTD? OPPAPAN OY bells roll like balls and bounce back. 277 TN TH? NOT -"ID MPTP Ney The shout of Holy Holy Holy from the synagogues will fade like gray smoke. TED PUD NY OW IE RT NOR QT ARPT] IVT NY At the end of summer I breathe this air SQW 7 OMA O19 TD 7IP that is burnt and pained. My thoughts have DIPS Tw ,orpwy OD ATW the stillness of many closed books: TANT TyTN? Ty oy OxZ ONIWA niap "OWE TyBE ORF] 20 OVP NIWND “YW NiRYT} Poets come in the evening into the Old City OAPI] OD PIO OMIT MT and they emerge from it pockets stuffed with images ppxD Nhe FAD and metaphors and little well-constructed parables and crepuscular similes from among columns and crypts, from within darkening fruit and delicate filigree of hammered hearts. 22 nw mA “NYA? -T NN ATT nyt ning? 2 ATR NR yd I lifted my hand to my forehead to wipe off the sweat and found I had accidentally raised up the ghost of Else Lasker-Schuler. Light and tiny as she was in her life, all the more so in her death. Ah, but her poems. 58 59> nya ney Dy 9p Py OWA mynwyy nyDg 7My TR MBI DUTT? OYDHOD "SWPT AN? "BWR MND mpypy PED Ov PON .HO! Poy OT NIT? TPT Opyy oly? DPPH NBT API Pap Aap PeA Peon 7g OrTiaAs TYR Ova Oy nrveT NEWT AD 7Y MT ODA Thy : 9D] TID Pip .O7N Ya} PPD PY eg? Ov TD2 HBP -OP ND .AP?DT ND enyprng miven 7Y OrZIT NPE PR O-ORYA 22970 ntB2] OMY! 1D) NYT] sDatoy Dy myT eT YT, 32> sO1TO DY Ning Py wT OPWAY Tey OM Xo OWT NBT WE “ORY 1323 ANN 7199 X7} -NyRAP BPI NT OYAT, WR? PTY ArTwHT "IPD -O1gR HNTB PND ,OrA2aND OPE a Jerusalem is a port city on the shore of eternity. The Temple Mount is a huge ship, a magnificent juxury liner. From the portholes of her Western Wall cheerful saints look out, travelers. Hasidim on the pier wave goodbye, shout hooray, hooray, bon voyage! She is always arriving, always sailing away. And the fences and the piers : and the policemen and the flags and the high masts of churches and mosques and the smokestacks of synagogues and the boats of psalms of praise and the mountain-waves. The shofar blows: another one has just left. Yom Kippur sailors in white uniforms climb among ladders and ropes of well-tested prayers. And the commerce and the gates and the golden domes: Jerusalem is the Venice of God. 22 Jerusalem is Sodom’s sister-city, but the merciful salt didn’t have mercy on her and didn’t cover her with a silent whiteness. Jerusalem is an unconsenting Pompeii. History books that were thrown into the fire, their pages are strewn about, stiffening in red. 61Aneye whose color is too light, blind, always shattered in a sieve of veins. Many births gaping below, womb with numberless teeth, _ adouble-edged woman and the holy beasts. The sun thought that Jerusalem was a sea and set in her, in a terrible mistake. Sky fish were caught in a net of alleys, arn > tearing one another to pieces. .TAND TNWIY MA} .OYWy Jerusalem. An operation that was left open. Dpim mwa fwd on? 1297 ON The surgeons went to take a nap in far-away skies, but her dead gradually formed a circle, all around her, - like quiet petals. My God Translated by Stephen Mitchell 63YIM PE NPY TD r con Ty :TP¥ 13 MY Te ORD TITAN? NB -pring wp} ND7TD Py PD NWT TBPRT PA API ALRY .O72 17 WHYE TAD OID UPD PRY 270 RIT mm ntiaye ane OF DreYIYI OPT -DNDI an OP NIPRY Ten? PWD XP 72 TOR nyo Toy WAN 1] MIE Doty? ug? XY ONT? RD omit SaTy DipD wT, amy 12 NY ANS Tp OMIT OPK OF 7K ny TTP TA ORR DNS Vy WIN 64 from Songs of Zion the Beautiful 17 An Armenian funeral on Mount Zion: the coffin is carried, wobbling, like a bit of straw in a procession of black ants. The widow's black purse gleams in the setting sun. That you are Our Father, that he is Our King, that we have no Savior in our time. 18 The graves in Jerusalem are openings of deep tunnels on the day of the ground-breaking ceremonies. After that they stop digging. The gravestones are magnificent cornerstones of buildings that will never get built. 2 Jerusalem’s a place where everyone remembers he’s forgotten something but doesn’t remember what it is. And for the sake of remembering I wear my father’s face over mine. 65This is the city where my dream-containers fill up vprnton 23 NyaAD ABW Ty TT like a diver’s oxygen tanks. 299 oreoty 2W T¥MN *22p top 73 TepPT Its holiness TIAN? OVD? NDIA sometimes turns into love. TPRT OTD ONIWY Ni>xw And the questions that are asked in these hills 22y IRBT NE Pe: on? ws are the same as they've always been: “Have you by AyIT ny NR] seen my sheep?” “Have you seen ow my shepherd?” amine 93 NT ENN? wap iIAY 3p 192 And the door of my house stands open fe like a tomb where someone was resurrected. = oy P2737 SW AION AT say Pon 2 on1g2 nhs kwh TSA TY This is the end of the landscape. Among blocks ord oxy xo ory vox dae of concrete and rusting iron © aaa by aio at there’s a fig tree with heavy fruit but even kids don’t come around to pick it. This is the end of the landscape. Inside the carcass of a mattress rotting in the field the springs stay put, like souls. »PIMND 13 7 ay m3 Ton py aH KT The house I lived in gets farther and farther away but a light was left burning in the window 66 67ANT PTW X? [Rd 00 mt mag? may) Pa OI TTR 97 732Y Motppg 2 JWRY DY NN 92D TEDP TY » npynD YT AND AWW My yA AMNPDI PP ANY PY¥ OW "0 WE? -DVPAVAT NN] TWAT Ne OrAyAD TINT STYIND WaT Ny OM Z1Y PT OAD JANI ANID OTK SADR PID PTY WwW OITA NOT Ne OPTIDD OPP we? WD emyyiay ONyP D7? 3B? mph oyypne m3 79 IPED yp oy wy OYyAyR Up AED TAY ND -Ping PRI > npbnaa Ee: fad DYED NR tmp RIT WIND IAN so that people would only see and not hear. This is the end. And how to start loving again is like the dilemma of architects in an old city: how to build where houses once stood, so it will look like that time, yet also like our own. 23 Nineteen years this city was divided — the lifetime of a young man who might have fallen in the war. Tlong for the serenity and for the old longing. Crazy people would cross through the fence that divided it, enemies breached it, lovers went up to it, testing, like circus acrobats who try the net before they dare to jump. The patches of no-man’s land were like placid bays. Longing floated overhead in the sky like ships whose anchors stuck deep in us, and sweetly ached. pr) They're burning the photos of the divided Jerusalem and the beautiful letters of the beloved, who was so quiet. 69nyyny ap2wa TPA AYN OUANT) NUNIT 2777 oy -O™ PM ORY ON JAAN AAW -NO 7K PD -TOP!A NY DY? DM IK m3 2yR? TD MVPw!D OT DY -TP¥ 79 proyen D¥>yD aan wa? W217 mp nQWa OTT oy OrD?47 Oy? STP WIN] HIP? OMY OrYrIN) 2INPWA NY TID ND *y N72] 02} ONPDYD O°2979 THwO Drow oy Napa pre pyivy 99 by THB 72 TON] TAY DWT NY MY ,DBB "7D ART RY ODI W AYN -MioT TY TYWANT XP O?IvD »D DUT OD TYR? PAH .O73UIT] OYIPIT) OmIYIT by 70 The noisy old dowager, all of her, with her gold and copper and stones, has come back toa fat legal life. But I don’t like her. Sometimes I remember the quiet one. 28 Who has the quietest face here? toll the bells of Mount Zion. What goes to Mount Moriah? Children go with their parents on the Sabbath, eating rotten almonds and moldy chocolate. Who hasn‘ cleared the table yet? Kings and prophets and generals. They were casting dice on the gameboard of Jerusalem and scattered them all over the world. Who has ever seen Jerusalem naked? Not even the archeaological. Jerusalem never gets completely undressed but always puts on new houses over the shabby and broken ones. 71| | ne DIP? PIT TE Tt Ante O-P2BY) "TW O”DI} oyiny 77? Ante THA SAVY TYP AIT TO NIK PR TANI FP TDN 71H? TPR” SDyyny ONT Ny PAT $A TORT 9y IWIN IRYD 13ND a7 VY ANAK ADH neg nip nx] inva MAP TD NE ®? TBD TYR MENT NO} Hy AYR corto NtS¥DT TY ormag Opn oY Wp Nyhy KD AQMA AyD YI IIT PY ARAN NOVA ore, aya nip, Naya -371 93yN3 PRZ7 MivgyNT Niyp by Toy? -ny7a NET] Pen oy OMAAD D3 72 2k. AY ng 4D Ay PIP PY? VOI WR DTI molUrT BY TY TaNNT? TD 2 People travel a long distance to be able to say: This reminds me ‘of some other place. It’s like that time, it’s similar. But J] knew a man who traveled all the way to New York to commit suicide. He claimed that the buildings in Jerusalem were too low and besides, everyone knew him there. [remember him fondly because once he called me out of the classroom in the middle of a lesson: “A beautiful woman is waiting for you outside, in the garden.” And he quieted the noisy children. Whenever I think about the woman and the garden, Iremember him up on that high roof: the loneliness of his death, the death of his loneliness. 3 Four synagogues are entrenched together against bombardments from God. In the first, Holy Arks with candies hidden away, and sweet preserves of God’s Word from a blessed season, all in beautiful jars, for children to stand on tip-toe and lick with a golden finger. Also ovens with cholent and oatmeal running over. 73-N¥] NaN? OPIN oY AYTW 7 CAI OY TY? PDMS Pw Dpwend 1 OI TIA my ay” .oP NY bagha OID Tw? DUAN TID TY » -Ditoyn oy pars Timp DPOVDD IP PIR APY TD WOT? TPT nnn TRI" s"VPOT [HIT I NinIppr snnyn XY oPiy>w TEVA 19 DRY OTTAND AYPWA TL? -TY vopa ya yD? 897 12 WR DUIS VY PVD 74 In the second, four strong pillars for an everlasting wedding canopy. The result of love. The third, an old Turkish bathhouse with small, high windows and Torah scrolls, naked or taking off their robes. Answer, answer us in clouds of vapor and white steam, Answer, answer till the senses swoon. The fourth: part of God’s bequest. Yes. These are thy tents, O Jacob, in profundis. “From here we begin the descent. Please remain seated till the signal lights up.” As on a flight that will never land. 32 In the lot through which lovers took a short-cut the Rumanian circus is parked. Clouds mill around the setting sun like refugees in an alien city of refuge. A man of the twentieth century casts a deep purple Byzantine shadow. 75nome TR PLY dy AYYD TOR "28D ON TNT OY OND PPD Sy MY ny aT? TT nT? Ty ey ay 8 0 We Sansa tying ORD In the summer whole peoples visit one another -OEA PIA TY? PNT to spy out each other's nakedness. AyyD NPD TI" Hebrew and Arabic, that are like guttural Stones, like sand on the palate, row soft as oil for the tourist’s sake. Jihad and Jehovah’s wars burst like ripe figs. 78 79yota DywAT Nay Ny} Y TP} Y Ova] OID AYIAND Ya OW TAD ey? nhaoD Sp oya DP OY TD AND Vy OUT *R OTT B72 BY TTD nyzing PYAN sMiway oF? W. OrDYE? nO 7 3¥VD 72 PWD DIDNT 79 Ty TORT TN? NYY "I2W , WRT TB, 7Y NRVAT NYT 72 ant nivay Oey OND sD’PID PERNT? 9972 KY NINTIIT 7 oy mivpnn 02D990 79 sMANINT NNT YZ MPT NWT 4p TWH TWR TRA 7272 TOP TEED PRD NYS TERT NDNA 2 PINT 72 soy pranT mn PAHs 92 MNID TTD 72 93 72 PND DIDNT 80 Jerusalem’s water pipes protrude like the veins and sinews of a tired old man. Its houses are like the teeth of a lower jaw, grinding in vain because the skies above it are empty. Perhaps Jerusalem is a dead city with people swarming like maggots. Sometimes they celebrate. 37 All these stones, all this sorrow, all this light, rubble of night hours and noon-dust, all the twisted pipework of sanctity, Wailing Wall, towers, rusty halos all the prophecies that — like old men — couldn't hold it in, all the sweaty angels’ wings, all the stinking candles, all the prosthetic tourism, dung of deliverance, bliss-and-balls, dregs of nothingness, bomb and time. All this dust, all these bones in the process of resurrection and of the wind, all this love, all these Stones, all this sorrow. 81672 2739 NPAT NE OTD Go heap them into the valleys all around Twn? MAR OYA » "so Jerusalem will be level PINDT -otwD 73 for my sweet airplane -T2yD OR NIK NP? Ride that will come and carry me up. Translated by Chana Bloch 16 A song of lovers in Jerusalem: we are included in most of the prophecies of wrath and in almost all of the good messages. apy Py nips nPaAD OF We are to be found on picture postcards TORT? WEN ONIN ORY] I of our city. Perhaps we can’t be seen because we were sitting in a house : 4 Or too small; py viv Ty) DPT the picture was taken from @ passing airplane. 83» APIO YY OT MDT .NTZIn Vy MspI Aen “TBR OYD? D7 ITA IW Dpysy -DAQR? WY TON TY IR Wy DANA? WY Ty TE * ppmning ng ori7y Rv¥ta Ty 9D MET Pong nipraA mp ors na nim? 1277) wy sOTUTHT OryyD) or22¥ DOR OS TIN? ONIe VIDA SAW" ONT Ne 7710] ODA DN TK IY AYE ND NP 84 33 Asong of my homeland: The knowledge of its waters starts with tears. Sometimes I love water, sometimes stone. These days I’m more in favor of stones. But this might change. 6 Every night God takes his glittering merchandise out of his showcase — holy chariots, tables of law, fancy beads, crosses and bells — and puts them back into dark boxes inside and pulls down the shutters: “Again, not one prophet has come to buy.” Translated by Y.A. & Ted Hugheswean DIP) HWP pw 20922 1k MZ OWIVW? O92] ADR Dviny On YY TR IN OND TE Dre ORD Te "TVD JN” .TTYD MD = Y OTT OPyy DVT Ne OONAVDD TB OPA Wp OY) NI] PD TID NY ARID TE weap) 220 TINd ER» M2 Aya sDr2p3 OID 720 Py Wp APD soviv? ni} xo) APN DWI TN OM TRI WW ROU PANE ION 739 WY TNg twp Ay Ovygia OF THAT OND 72} 37 PaO Pa 07? PR) INN TD] OT? PRD -TovD AN OWI ANY D177 86 ‘Songs of Continuity Songs of continuity, land mines and graves. ‘These are turned up when you build a house or a road: Then come the black crow people from Meah Sh’earim* to screech bitterly “dead, dead.” Then come young soldiers and with hands still bare from last night they dismantle iron and decipher death. So come, let’s build no house and pave no road! Let’s make a house folded up in the heart and a road rolled up in a coil in the soul, inside, and we shall not die forever. People here live inside prophecies that came true as inside a thick cloud after an explosion that did not disperse. And so in their lonely blindness they touch each other between the legs, in the twilight, for they have no other time and they have no other place, and the prophets died long ago. Translated by Y.A. & Ted Hughes * Meah Sh’earim — Quarter of the ultra-orthodox in Jerusalem. 87