Rfvogel

David Vogel (1891-1944)

Translated by Robert Friend

On autumn nights…

On autumn nights

a leaf falls in the woods unseen,

lies silently on the ground.

A fish leaps from the waters

of a stream,

and in the dark

a flapping wetness echoes.

In the black distance are sown

hoofbeats of horses unseen,

dissolving.

All this

the weary wanderer hears

and trembles in his bones.

From Found in Translation: Modern Hebrew Poets, a Bilingual Edition

Selected and with an Introduction by Gabriel Levin.

(The Toby Press, 2006)