Salman Masalha
Amos Noy ||
CYCLAMEN
Wondrously I grew in a little house by a big wood[1]
In a world, far, far away,[2] with no law or anger
On a planet where no fathers stood.
My mother nursed me on milk of wolves
To be big, strong and wary of strangers,
All of them dangers, and not err in loves.
No cry baby, I never wept against my will.
My mother, the engine that knew she could[3]–
Pulled her lov’d boy,[4] flew us o’er dale and hill,[5]
Not hoping for superfluous miracles or omens.
No rain fell on the dusty earth, no cloud burst
And in corms among untrodden stones, fair[6] cyclamen
Withered in their hidden thirst.
Haaretz September 25, 2022
Translated from Hebrew by Vivian Eden
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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_House_in_the_Big_Woods
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXDnFYu91vY
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2EhWYGbi5o
[4] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44455/on-my-first-son
[5] https://poets.org/poem/midsummer-nights-dream-act-ii-scene-i-over-hill-over-dale
[6] https://poets.org/poem/she-dwelt-among-untrodden-ways
