Jerusalem Stone

We're having the annual "Week of the Hebrew Book" this week: a fine gimmick to encourage the sales of books. One evening I just happened to pass by the fairgrounds, totally coincidentially, mind you, and with no prior intention whatsoever I found myself wandering between the booths looking at books. Unfortunately I had my credit card on me, and I felt bad about the poor salespeople standing there with all those books to sell...

Anyway, one of the titles I rescued was a book of Yehuda Amichai's poetry on Jerusalem. Only after I got home did I notice that it's a bilingual edition, the original Hebrew, and an English translation.

So here's a poem, which is even vaguely contemporary:

האבן הירושלמית היא האבן היחידה

שכואבת. יש בה רשת עצבים.

מזמן לזמן מתגודדת ירושלים

להמון מחאה כמו מגדל בבל.

אך במקלות גדולים מכה אלוהים-המשטרה

לתוכה: בתים נחרבים, חומות נפרצות

ואחר-כך תתפזר שוב העיר, תוך מלמולי

תפילות תלונה וצעקות-פה-ושם מכנסיות

ומבתי כנסת וצריחים ממסגד.

כל אחד למקומו

Jerusalem stone is the only stone that can

feel pain. It has a network of nerves.

From time to time Jerusalem crowds into

mass protests like the tower of Babel.

But with hugh clubs God-the-Police beats her

down: houses are razed, walls flattened,

and afterwards the city disperses, muttering

prayers of complaint and sporadic screams from churches

and synagogues and loud-moaning mosques.

Each to his own place.

Poems of Jerusalem (Hebrew Edition)