Is it True (You will walk in the field) / Leah Goldberg, translated

Today I present a translation to English of Leah Goldberg's "Is it true", popularly known as "You will walk in the field" ("האמנם"/"את תלכי בשדה"). I wrote about this poem in my first blog post. Below is one of Hava Alberstein's performances of the song (I hold her to be the best performer of this song). You might also find the video of Shlomi Saranga's recent cover interesting. Finally, an analysis of the work is available from Wikimedia.

To Y., with pride and gratitude.

Is it true - will there ever come days of forgiveness and mercy?
And you'll walk in the field, and it will be an innocent's walk.
And your feet on the medick's small leaves will be gently caressing,
And sweet will be stings, when you're stung by the rye's broken stalks!

And the drizzle will catch you in pounding raindrops' folly
On your shoulders, your breast and your neck, while your mind will be clean,
You will walk the wet field, and the silence will fill you -
As does light in a dark cloud's rim

And you'll breathe in the furrow in breaths calm and even,
And the pond's golden mirror will show you the Sun up above,
And once more all the things will be simple, and present, and living,
And once more you will love - yes, you will, yes, once more you will love!

You will walk. All alone. Never hurt by the blazing inferno
Of the fires on the roads fed by horrors too awful to stand,
And in your heart of hearts you'll be able to humbly surrender,
In the way of the weeds, in the way of free men.

Translated by yours truly, Dec. 2008.