Poetry. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the Hebrew by Lisa Katz and Shlomit Naor.

“Verses to be added to the end of Deuteronomy”

Are you kidding, let it be,
just write that we were born, we were here,
and we drowned in the sea.
That's enough. Keep the final verses
short, in your generosity, just hint that it's bad here,
without love, in the desert, the old people grumbling,
even dying all the way here,
a long journey and contention.

And the day-old baby of the homeland — hatred —
the baby of the homeland, and its mother — longing,
and the baby of the homeland,
swallowing oatmeal and milk, some more,
dying and hunger.

Write concisely about murder and blood,
just hint at a people and a homeland,
keep it short, in your generosity (let it be),
and remind the reader
that we drowned in the sea.

Author City: Haifa ISR

Admiel Kosman is one of Israel's most prominent contemporary poets, with eight books of poetry to his credit, and several more of prose. His work evokes multiple tensions between prayer and modern life, sacred texts and eroticism, war and peace, language and translation. After teaching at Bar- Ilan University in Israel for many years, Kosman moved permanently to Berlin, where he is now professor of religious studies at Potsdam University and heads the first Reform rabbinical college in Germany to resume operations after the Holocaust.