And There Was Between Us Just The Shining / Leah Goldberg, translated

Edited Nov. 15th to speak about Leah Goldberg's attitude to writing 'classical' poems. -Yours truly

Edited Nov. 20th - modified one line of the translation, which appeared lame to me. -Yours truly



Leah Goldberg, herself a modernist and a literary critic, was extremely conscious to the fact that classical poetic forms were falling out of fashion. So she asserted stylistic justification for many of her poems by claiming they are replicas or derivatives from "genuine" classical works.

Goldberg herself translated a considerable number of classical works; however she wrote yet more of her own. In my opinion, they are wonderfully authentic and display formidable mastery of the language.

Poem II from the cycle "Love Poems from an Ancient Tome" (circa 1944) is a lovely sample -

ולא היה ביננו אלא זוהר
עניו של השכמה ברחוב כפרי
ולבלובו של גן בטרם פרי
בלובן תפרחתו יפת התואר.

ומה מאוד צחקת באמרי
כי אל השחר הענוג כורד
אקרב ואקטפנו למזכרת
ואשמרנו בין דפי ספרי.

את זרועך נשאת, התזכור?
והנידות אט ענף תפוח,
ועל ראשי ירד מטר צחור.

מאחורי גבך הכפר ניעור,
החלונות נצטלצלו עם רוח -
ולא היה בינינו אלא אור.

---

To X., who reminded me that true, selfless, friendship is not an extinct species.

And there was between us just the shining
The modest shining of a village dawn,
A garden's blossom ere the fruit have shown,
In its new bright and fair flower binding,

And then you laughed so hard when I intoned,
That I'll approach the heavens' rosy sweetness,
And pick it up, and fold it lest it slips us,
And store it midst the pages of my tome

Do you recall - you raised your arm so high -
And then you slowly stirred the apple trusses,
And rain fell on me - of perfect white,

Behind your back, the street wore off the night;
And morning wind has rung the window-glasses,
And there was between us just the light.

Translated by yours truly.

The poem was set to music by Danny Litany in a lovely bluesy way, and sung by Tsila Dagan. Here is a much later performance by Danny Litany himself (as in most cases, I hold that Leah Goldberg sounded better when performed by a female singer).