The Love of Therese di Meun, poem II / Leah Goldberg [translated]

I do not want at all my sleeping eyes,
To see you all the time, nor do I wish to shake,
When my doors open. I do not want to think
Of you, not then, nor when the day is bright,

And least of all, I do not wish to make
Out in young belles' gazes, wide awake,
Delighted victory, contempt and stings.
I want no part in any of these things.

How come, thus far, in my indifferent peace,
I lived before, so wise, so self-assured,
With firm and quiet dignity I carried on my years,

At night from awful frights I stayed secure,
But very sweet indeed were moments we endured,
And waiting turns to wanting with shamed ease.

Translation mine. Original here.

So we have split / Leah Goldberg [translated]

To the same X., as a token of friendship.
To S., for loving this poem.

So we have split, thus well the anger lingers,
The fog between us as a wall.
The little drop remaining on my fingers,
Must be a raindrop, not a tear at all.

Our age is shamed by crying to a fault,
No one will cry for love that's coming to an end.
Both Judgement Day and Mercy's Nights we'll fend,
Indifferent and proud &emdash; tears won't fall.

So we have split, the street has yelled and cheered,
Some rush has thrust me forth, while all against,
Hung like a bridal veil, the fog appeared.
But why my heart is filled with joy unbased?
Perhaps &emdash in spite of all — it was a tear.

Translated by yours truly.

נפרדנו כך. היטב, היטב חרה לי.
הערפל בינינו כחומה.
זאת הטיפה שעל ידי נותרה לי
טיפת סגריר ודאי היא, לא דמעה.
לדור הזה הבכי הוא כלימה,
הוא לא יבכה על אהבה גוססת.
ביום הדין ובלילות החסד
אדיש וגא הוא לא יוריד דמעה.
נפרדנו כך הרחוב המה, המה.
דחפני איזה הלך, ומנגד
הערפל תלוי כהינומה.
מאין בלבי חדווה חוגגת?
אולי, בכל זאת, זו הייתה דמעה.

A link to a high-school level analysis of the poem.

And There Was Between Us Just The Shining / Leah Goldberg, performance by Tsila Dagan

I earlier wrote of (and translated to English) a wonderful sonnet by Leah Goldberg, And There was Between Us Just The Shining.

Two performances of it by the late Tsila Dagan have since been uploaded to YouTube, and I'd like to post them. The first performance is the original 1970's version; the second one is a concert performance by her, which is plainer, but still notable.

Dialogue - He / Leah Goldberg

בשתיקתך, שקע כבמצולה
דברי המר, אהבתי קשבת -
ממרחקים, אין - הד אלי נושבת
שלות בשרך בלי חסד וחמלה

גופך היה לי נכר וגולה
ממבטך כמאגם חוזרת
תמיד אלי דמותי המתאכזרת
מצלילותך - נפשי האפלה.

אביונותי - משפע ותפארת
את לי הדרך, לבדידות כפולה.

Your silence swallowed up as an abyss
My bitter words. My love now hears you whole —
And from the stretching silence blows,
With neither grace nor mercy, a calm peace

Your body turned an exile overseas
In your two eyes, as in a lake's cool glass
At me my cruelty must pass,
Your clarity reflects my soul amiss,

My destitution - from all the wealth and splendour
To twice the loneliness for me your road proceeds.

Translated by yours truly, Jan. 2009.

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.

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).