Hebrew Ballads

A wall. A blunt wall of human backs, arms, legs. A gray bulwark with white round stains. A defeated army in a cave, before maneuvers, Waiting for doors to open. Not cages unlatched, in uproar. No…

Moses, from whose loins I sprung, Lit by a lamp in his blood Ten immutable rules, a moon For mutable lampless men. The blonde, the bronze, the ruddy, With the same heaving blood, Keep tide to the…

The whole day In the roads’ realm The whole day Facing only wind Just a narrow ditch between road and shoulder Just young lids between sun and eye What in the world Can be more beautiful?

You strangers with the broad, thick-veined hands, Crooked legs and faces hard as leather, Smelling of sea and tar And of the rust of thick anchor chains; Oh, you, strangers to all nations and tongues…

Bread and cheese and honey on a simple table. The tea beckons golden In two thin glasses. Green, cool and fresh, The water jug, veiled in dew. On the edge a woman’s handkerchief. Next to it, a…

O our God! O our God!May Rabbi Frājī be with us.Come, people, and hear what happened   to Rabbi Frājī, how he passed on.He sent after the gozbar   and said to him “Come before us.”When the gozbar cam…