PRATIK SPRING 2021 ISSUE: HEBREW POET HEDVA HARECHAVI POEM, "And This The Rarity"

 

HEDVA HARECHAVI

And This The Rarity

 

And this the rarity   to listen to his breaths

And this the rarity   to place wreathes around his wishes

And this the rarity   and to explain to him love peace longings

And this the rarity   because this evening a choir of angels will sing in his home

And this the rarity   as though he is made of a different substance

And this the rarity   (hard for me to imagine)

And this the rarity   and to concede, to concede to him, to concede

And this the rarity   just to say his name out loud

And this the rarity   to give him a slip of paper and a pencil

And this the rarity   to unburden him of his worries

And this the rarity   to take his shoes off

And this the rarity   to hold his understanding hand

as his eyes close, his eyes

 

Afterwards this the rarity, that is my child, only my child,

then God

and His companions

 

Translated from the Hebrew by Vivian Eden

Recipient of the Prime Minister Prize for Poetry and  the Yehuda Amichai Prize, Hedva Harechavi  is an acclaimed Israeli Poetess and artist. She has lived most of her life in Jerusalem and has been translated into many languages including English, Arabic, Russian and German.

Vivian Eden was born in the United States and has taught English, theater, translation studies and poetry translation in academic and informal settings. Currently, she works from home in Jerusalem at Haaretz English Edition, a Tel Aviv-based Israeli newspaper co-published and distributed with The International New York Times.