[New-Poetry] Amichai

[Anny Ballardini]

An excellent poem.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Graham 
  To: NewPoetry & Views 
  Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 3:52 PM
  Subject: [New-Poetry] Amichai


  Letter of Recommendation

  On summer nights I sleep naked
  in Jerusalem on my bed,
  which stands on the brink
  of a deep valley
  without rolling down into it.

  During the day I walk about,
  the Ten Commandments on my lips
  like an old song someone is humming to himself.

  Oh, touch me, touch me, you good woman!
  This is not a scar you feel under my shirt.
  It's a letter of recommendation, folded,
  from my father:
  "He is still a good boy and full of love."

  I remember my father waking me up
  for early prayers. He did it caressing
  my forehead, not tearing the blanket away.

  Since then I love him even more.
  And because of this
  let him be woken up
  gently and with love

  on the Day of Resurrection.

  --Yehuda Amichai.  Amen. Translated from the Hebrew by the author and Ted Hughes. Harper & Row. Copyright © 1977 by Yehuda Amichai.






  ========================================
  David Graham
  grahamd at ripon.edu
  Home Page:
  http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/index.html
  Poetry Library:
  http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html
  ==========================================








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