Rachel Korn | Poems | POEM'S BEGINNING

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RACHEL KORN / POETRY ABOUT POEMS / POEM'S BEGINNING

Poem’s Beginning
Translated by Edward Ginsburg

It’s a dread and endless fright,
A threshold of pain and grief,
A something standing at the door,
Wrapped in the gray, thick robe of twilight.

It’s unperceived, primeval,
A shore toward which my heart now swims alone,
Leaving behind dreams and my beloved
To go forth in anguish and meet the unkown betrothed.

Into my blood a though has clawed its way,
A vulture, a predatory bird,
Tenaciously, until it feels,
A last and sobbing quiver of the flesh.

And as for the sacrifice, a drop of blood must flow,
To intercept the angel’s naked sword,
And redeem from doom,
A wandering, hopeless sound.

And suddenly a peace descends,
One hears the cry of falling stars,
Like a vessel, a dry-thirsting jug,
Gathering in the blue-light of tears.

The world’s much richer now,
More motherly the earth to the wanderer’s feet,
And G-d himself must kneel in adoration,
In that moment, so unique and sacred—

The beginning of a poem.

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