A drunk, embroiled, bleeding will
that imposed itself on constellations,
on the world’s secret,
is blazing in my generation’s heart.
Fettering the free, festive air,
with a strict hand.
The sun and the deeps are wheel horses
on its farm.

It is strange to be a woman,
simple, domestic, feeble,
in an insolent, violent generation,
to be shy, weary,
in a cold generation, a generation of wheelers and dealers,
for whom Orion, Pleiades, and moon
are advertisement lights, golden marks, army badges.
To march in a shaded street
reflecting, slowly, slowly,
to taste China
in a perfumed peach,
to look at Paris
in a cold movie theater,
while they fly
around the world,
while they fly in space.
To be among conquerors
and conquered,
while every creature is ashamed, afraid,
alone.

It is strange to wither before clouds of enmity,
while the heart is drawn
to a myriad of worlds.

— Zelda Mishkovsky, translated from the Hebrew by Marcia Falk

Categories: Penpositive Reading Campaign, Poets and Poems

Tags: A Drunk, Embroiled Will; By the Israeli Poet Zelda