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.