{"id":5200,"date":"2024-04-20T08:37:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T08:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/?p=5200"},"modified":"2024-04-20T08:37:06","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T08:37:06","slug":"four-poems-by-balfour-hakak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/four-poems-by-balfour-hakak\/","title":{"rendered":"Four poems by Balfour Hakak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four poems \/ Balfour Hakak<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

A scroll of Lineage \u2014 <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Poem by Balfour Hakak.<\/p>\n

Translation from the Hebrew by Schulamith Chava Halevy<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n

My grandfather
\nreceived from his father a parchment
\na scroll of lineage
\nand his father received from his
\nand his father received from his
\nfather from father
\nback to the elders of the
\ngreat Assembly<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But when my father departed in his immaculate gown
\nwhen he ascended to his great ancestral land
\nthe scroll blew into sighs
\nthe scroll blew in the wind
\nnames aflame
\nletters afly<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ever since
\nlost still in the tempestuous storm
\nI seek after my trampled scroll
\nin the light of day
\nin the twilight of sorcery<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Indeed, I must create
\nstarting now
\na scroll of lineage
\n\u2014 a new scroll
\nOne that begins with
\nme.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE SIGHT OF THE HEART<\/strong><\/p>\n

Balfour Hakak<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ever since you arose in my thought
\nYou have been saying to me from a distance:
\nYour face is the face of a seraph
\nAnd you are one of the riders in the Chariot<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We loved together in aimless motion
\nWe lived together in a place of punishment
\nThose who go there are entwined, their soul goes out
\nThose who go there do not return.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blue rivers then were of fire
\nYou were a queen in beauty
\nI was a king in majesty
\nAnd we both loved according to the word.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Never forget:
\nWe ascended from all the abysses and the breakings
\nWe saw much happiness, also pain,
\nBut we were on the highest height of all:
\nWe had sight of the heart.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Translation: Esther Cameron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her Ebbing Storm<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Poem by Balfour Hakak.
\nTranslation from the Hebrew by Schulamith Chava Halevy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I watched her ebbing storm
\nsurrounded by every adjuration of the Covenant
\noaths and vows carved into her living flesh
\npeeling from my flesh,
\ndetaching, departing
\neyes veiled in tremor,
\nawesome majesty
\nHer freedom is no more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her burning frock she left me,
\nall my sheets of poems
\nare hers
\n\u2014 a keepsake.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Her attire is of qualm
\ndisappearing into the distance
\nshe is quiet now, silent.
\nWho might comprehend
\nthe depth of her torment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Light from the Sea of Death<\/strong><\/p>\n

Balfour Hakak
\nTranslation from Hebrew \u00a9\u00a0 Schulamith C. Halevy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the Dead Sea I lay on the seaside bed
\ntaking refuge in the forgetting of memories
\nI said: let me forget for a moment<\/p>\n

all that had transpired
\nlet me consign to oblivion all my toil and legacy.<\/p>\n

Then from the sea came towards me a man
\nwho sleeps on the sea of mirrors.
\nwho floats on the water adrift in glow.
\nhis flesh flashing from salt, of water-glow
\nhis blood flashing sevenfold.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Holding in his hand an almond staff
\nhe carves into its bark
\nmark upon mark.
\nWhite and sacred letters he diligently
\ncarves, white symbols in the staff of
\nsigns.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And the man is precious to me and beloved
\nAnd the man who rose from the sea
\nis my grandfather.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The sea is like a pure blue length of cloth
\na prayer shawl.\u00a0 A cloth of trembling ripples.
\nHe passes to me the staff from the Sea of Death
\nhis white face storming in fog
\nhis face dripping light from the Sea of Death
\nlight bestowed upon my living hand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Would that the staff become a torch\u00a3
\nof light in my life
\nthat I be fruitful in the land
\nthat I confer it upon my sons.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four poems \/ Balfour Hakak A scroll of Lineage \u2014 Poem by Balfour Hakak. Translation from the Hebrew by Schulamith Chava Halevy \u00a0 My grandfather received from his father a parchment a scroll of lineage and his father received from his and his father received from his father from father back to the elders of […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[],"book_author":[],"book_publisher":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5201,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5200\/revisions\/5201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5200"},{"taxonomy":"book_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book_author?post=5200"},{"taxonomy":"book_publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwabogdani.org\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book_publisher?post=5200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}