Work in this issue by Raquel Chalfi
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Other translations by Karen Alkalay-Gut in this issue:
Yehuda Amichai
Raquel Chalfi
Yaffa Zins
Translations by Karen Alkalay-Gut in Spring 2000:
Iris Le'al
Leah Rudnitsky
Ben Zion Tomer
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A feature on Karen's new book
In My Skin
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Poems by Karen in Spring 2000
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Email
Ms. Karen Alkalay-Gut
Miriam Baruch Chalfi
Seashell
A small shell
lying on the sand
on the shore of the great sea
Wholly a secret
Wondering at a waterless world
Blinding light
Parching wind
A sculptured seashell
modeled on a rounding galaxy
Its inner space
preserving the murmur
of the vast sea
A small shell
humbly
lying on the sand
Even the Colors of the Flowers
Even the colors of the flowers
have followed the light
Silences ascend
into the night
The night is wondering
reaches up to consult the stars
People are lighting lanterns
Whirling around the light
Until the soul spins, dizzy,
And the dark waits from afar
In its lap are wreaths of dreams,
life-like dreams
to seduce the sleepy soul
Miracle of blossoms
Terror of withering
in a single night
on a single heart
Loving loving midnight train
Blindly speeding into the night
To the very end
The night responds
with an echo
from the edge of its longing
Eclipse
The eclipse of the sun was complete
with no one to save it
When my love held me
I was afraid
for they said
evil shall come from afar
And the eclipse of the sun was complete
with no one to save it
Even this you knew not
my unborn son
I have been no bastion for you
from the terror of the world
You followed me
and I slipped away
Your footsteps are imprinted in me
by my longing
Translated by Raquel Chalfi and Karen Alkalay-Gut
