"Therefore the walls of this house are narrow
and the city is strange."
More Perihelion:
Bob Sward's Writer's Friendship Series
A quick list to poets featured in this issue:
translated from the Hebrew by Jeff Friedman
and Nathan Schwartz
Rachel
She is the blood that flows in my blood.
Therefore the walls of this house are narrow
Therefore I will take up my path
Nathan Schwartz is a former Israeli soldier who now lives in the U.S.A.
_______________________________________________________________
She is the voice that sings in my voice-
Rachel, shepherdess of Laban's flock,
Rachel, mother of mothers.
and the city is strange,
for her scarf once fluttered
in the desert wind.
with the confidence of Rachel, for the distances
she travelled, for the memories of the wide, warm sands,
are written on the soles of my feet.
Jeff Friedman is the author of three collections of poetry: Taking Down the Angel (Carnegie Mellon University Press 2003), Scattering the Ashes (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1998), and The Record-Breaking Heat Wave (BkMk Press- University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1986). His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including American Poetry Review, Poetry, The Antioch Review, The Missouri Review, Manoa, New England Review and 5 AM.