Saturday, May 30, 2020

Israeli Poetry by Natan Alterman





Flag of Israel

The Silver Platter

The Earth grows still.
The lurid sky slowly pales
Over smoking borders.
Heartsick, but still living, a people stand by
To greet the uniqueness
Of the miracle.

Readied, they wait beneath the moon,
Wrapped in awesome joy, before the light.
-- Then, soon,
A girl and boy step forward,
And slowly walk before the waiting nation;

In work garb and heavy-shod
They climb
In stillness.
Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime
Of aching day and fire-filled night

Unwashed, weary unto death, not knowing rest,
But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair.
-- Silently the two approach
And stand.
Are they of the quick or of the dead?

Through wondering tears, the people stare.
"Who are you, the silent two?"
And they reply: "We are the silver platter
Upon which the Jewish State was served to you."

And speaking, fall in shadow at the nation's feet.
Let the rest in Israel's chronicles be told.

1947

MOON

An old sight too has its moment of birth.
A birdless sky
Strange and set apart.
Facing your window on the moonlit night stands
A city plunged in crickets' tears.

And when you see a road still watching for a wayfarer
And the moon
Is on the cypress spear,
You say: 'My God, are all these things still out there?
May one whisper them a greeting?

From their pools the waters gaze upon us.
The tree is at rest
In a flush of catkin blossoms.
Never shall the sorrow of Your great playthings
Be plucked from me, O our God.

1938

BIO: Natan Alterman (1910-1970) was a Jewish poet and translator who had a profound influence on modern Hebrew poetry. As a Socialist Zionist and Pro-Nationalist Israeli, he worked tirelessly during the Israeli War of Independence from 1945 to 1947 to make the Israeli dream of independence from British colonial rule a reality. His poem, "The Silver Platter," celebrates the creation of the nation of Israel. Many of his poems focus on Jewish history and, in particular, the horrors of the Holocaust. In 1968, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature.

Saturday, May 16, 2020

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T.E. Lawrence



T.E. Lawrence - "Lawrence of Arabia"

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

I loved you, so I drew these tides of
Men into my hands
And wrote my will across the
Sky and stars
To earn you freedom, the seven
Pillared worthy house,
That your eyes might be
Shining for me
When we came

Death seemed my servant on the
Road, 'til we were near
And saw you waiting:
When you smiled and in sorrowful
Envy he outran me
And took you apart:
Into his quietness

Love, the way-weary, groped to your body,
Our brief wage
Ours for the moment
Before Earth's soft hand explored your shape
And the blind
Worms grew fat upon
Your substance

Men prayed me that I set our work,
The inviolate house,
As a memory of you
But for fit monument I shattered it,
Unfinished: and now
The little things creep out to patch
Themselves hovels
In the marred shadow

Thomas Edmund Lawrence (1888-1935)

BIO: T.E. Lawrence was a British military officer who is best remembered as "Lawrence of Arabia." He was instrumental in aiding the Arabic revolt against the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. He wanted Arabs in the Middle East to be a free people. But the Middle East was split into British and French colonies over his objections. Oil was a major factor in this decision. Always a scholar who could speak several languages, he died in a motorcycle accident in 1935.