Take This Poem and Copy It – Almog Behar
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קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It Take This Poem And Copy It Selected poems and stories in Hebrew and in English translation Almog Behar 2017 1 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It Take This Poem And Copy It Selected poems and stories in Hebrew and in English translation A Translation draft Bilingual edition Hebrew and english 2017 Almog Behar The translators: Vivian Eden Dimi reider Lisa Katz Alexandra Berger-Polsky Dan Cern Chana Morgenstern Matan Kaminer Itamar Haritan Saul Noam Zaritt Moran Benit Yael Kenan Shulamit Ran Sondra Silverston Zach Smith 2 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It Table of contents: Poems p. 7 My Arabic is mute Grandfathers Dead poets Take this poem and copy it A poem for the prisoners Lines to Primo Levi Midrash for the new Temple A Jerusalem courtyard Not to be afraid to say the word nostalgia Joyously My Son Says All * (At nights, my beloved grows babies in her belly) Tisha B’Av, 2003, Jerusalem Sheikh Jarrah, 2010 The grocery list A poem in five meanings The Hand Holds A Sword Does grace A poem for Rachel * (In the light of a morning) A woman awaits a bombing Four Comments on the Nakedness of the Poem-Source Jerusalem Shuts Her Heart (Poem Without a Name) Ecclesiastes the Elder A Man in Darkness 3 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It Hunger * (One doesn't need to be taunted in the sky in Jerusalem) a halved poem O How Has Baghdad Become Nizar Qabbani writes Pablo Neruda's Mujar from the Exile * (We have spoken enough of love) Possessions Remain After the Man Those Who Return to Him Empty * (I write bilingual poetry) The Land of Israel, 5713 * (The cessation of the muezzin's voice in my new neighborhood) Li Bai and the vacant moon Translations from English into Hebrew p. 128 Dancing / Sonia Sanchez And the days are not full enough / Ezra Pound Separation / William S. Merwin Of Mere Being / Wallace Stevens Visions of Johanna / Bob Dylan Love minus zero/No limit / Bob Dylan Chimes of Freedom / Bob Dylan Every Grain of Sand / Bob Dylan One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below) / Bob Dylan I shall be released / Bob Dylan It’s all over now, baby blue / Bob Dylan 4 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It Stories p. 153 Ana min al yahoud – I'm one of the Jews Shrinking Alas, Baghdad Sits Solitary First chapter from the Novel "Rachel and Ezekiel" Other texts p. 198 Ruh Jedide: Young Mizrahi Israelis’ open letter to Arab peers An open condolences letter to the family of Mohammad Abu Khdeir and the Palestinian people Much water cannot put it out Letter of support for the ultra-Orthodox struggle against draft law Open Call: An Eastern Joint Initiative – "Mizrahi Palestinian Partnership" What is Mizrahiness? Seeking answers through questions Towards a new understanding of Arab-Jewish culture / written with Hadas Shabat-Nadir Interviews and reviews p. 245 Faces and Interfaces / Eli Eliahu Artists Talk: Israel/Palestine. An Interview with Almog Behar / Chana Morgenstern Devil or ally? / Sasson Somekh Hebrew Fiction Old-new Hymns / Ketzia Alon 5 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It Bilingual collection of poems and prose joins young Arabic, Hebrew writers / Samuel Thrope Israel's sidelined Mizrahi musicians and artists reclaim centre stage / Peter Beaumont Israeli Jewish, Arab authors collaborate on bilingual book / Yuval Avivi The resurgent mizrahi voice / Kamoun Ben-Shimon A never-ending struggle / Michal Levertov Interview with forward / Jake Marmer Articles p. 286 Umm Kulthum in the men's section Istanbul on the Hudson Out of the past, something new Biton meets Buzaglo: a riff On Dan-Benaya Seri Identity and Gender in the Poetry of Amira Hess Between east and west: disputes over modernisations of Hebrew culture in the works of Shaul Abdallah Yosef and Ariel Bension / written with Yuval Evri Mahmoud Darwish: Poetry’s State of Siege 6 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It Poems 7 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It My Arabic is mute / Almog Behar Translated by Dimi Reider My Arabic is mute strangled at the throat Cursing itself Without uttering a word Sleeps in the airless shelters of my soul Hiding From relatives Behind the Hebrew blinds And my Hebrew is raging Running between rooms and neighbours' balconies Making its voice heard in public Prophesying the coming of God and of bullodzers And then it holes up in the living room Thinking itself so open in the language of its skin So hidden between the pages of its flesh A moment naked, a moment later dressed It curls up into the armchair And begs itself for forgiveness My Arabic is petrified It quietly pretends to be Hebrew And whispers to friends Whenever somebody knocks at her gate "Ahlan Ahlan, welcome" And whenever a policeman passes it in the street It produces an ID card And points out the protective clause "Ana min al-yahud, ana min al-yahud" – “I am a Jew, I am a Jew”. 8 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It And My Hebrew is deaf Sometimes very deaf. 9 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It My Arabic is mute / Almog Behar translated by Alexandra Berger-Polsky My Arabic is mute strangled from the throat cursing herself without saying a word sleeping in the stifling air of my soul's shelters hiding from her relatives behind Hebrew shutters. And my Hebrew is growling running wild between rooms and neighbors' porches making her voice heard in public prophesying the coming of the Lord and bulldozers and then converging in the living room thinking of herself revelations revelations on the surface of her skin covered covered between the pages of her flesh one moment naked one moment dressed she contracts herself in an armchair begging forgiveness of her heart. My Arabic is afraid quietly impersonating Hebrew and whispering to friends with every knock at her gates: “Ahalan, ahalan”. And in front of every passing guard she takes out her identity card 10 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It and points to the protective clause: “Ana min al yahud, ana min al yahud”. And my Hebrew is deaf sometimes deaf indeed. 11 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It הערבית שלי אילמת הערבית שלי אילמת חנוקה מן הגרון מקללת את עצמה בלי להוציא מילה יֵשֵנָה באוויר המחניק של מקלטֵי נפשִי מסתתרת מבני-המשפחה מאחורי תריסי העברית. והעברית שלי גועשת מתרוצצת בין החדרים ומרפסות השכנים משמיעה קולה בַרבים מנבאת בואם של אלוהים ודחפורים ואז מתכנסת בסלון חושבת את עצמה גְלּויֹות גלּויֹות על שפת עורה כסּויֹות כסויות בין דפי בשרה רגע עירומה ורגע לבושה היא מצטמצמת בכורסא מבקשת את סליחת לבה. הערבית שלי פוחדת מתחזה בשקט לעברית ולוחשת לְחברים עם כל דפיקה בשעריה: "אהלן אהלן". ומול כל שוטר עובר בַרחוב שולפת תעודת זהות מצביעה על הסעיף המגונן: "אנא מִן אל-יַהּוד, אנא מִן אל-יַהּוד". 12 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It והעברית שלי חירשת לפעמים חירשת מאוד. 13 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It Grandfathers / Almog Behar Translated by Dimi Reider 1. Yitzhak Behar (1917-2002) When I was a child My grandfather's body was the breakwater on the beach of Tel Aviv. And all of his body was memories of leaping over a bridge in Berlin into the frozen river and the broken leg anticipating the broken heart and broken family. And my eyes when I was a child would look walking along the shoreline from the stones of Jaffa to the smoke of Reading and the Yarkon mouth Many houses Not yet thinking Of all the other cities in my childhood Not breaking over the waves. 2. Ezra Gahtan (1904-1986) When I was a child My grandfather's hands were held back. And on the picture with my mother Now in her bed room 14 אלמוג בהר – Almog Behar קח את השיר הזה והעתק אותו – Take This Poem And Copy It The suit of his life Sews his body into the longings of a refugee Two and eighty years long was his life's journey From the palms on the banks of the Tigris And to the old fountain since demolished at the end of the promenade leading To the Netanya beach. A memory is a tear in the flesh of the present And in the picture his daughter is smiling Her hand on his shoulder and he keeps his face severe the old fountain is behind them and the horizon is the Mediterranean tub that has no respect for rivers. In the backdrop, some ornamental palms planted by the municipality and in his flesh the saplings of a white mustachio and a black tie marking him to be of a different world. And in a moment he'll open his mouth Say "abroad" And mean Eretz Yisrael. 3. And I for years have been practicing them Walking with my hands enjoined behind a forever-upright back.