At the End — Web Exclusive
By Moshe Dor
Translated by Barbara Goldberg
At the end of the summer solstice days begin
to grow shorter, and this happens at the height
of summer, when all the fruits of the garden
ripen, even the forbidden, and their juice
drips in the absence of plucking. And books
of wisdom become wiser and less easy
to interpret, and lost wars become even more lost
in caves of time, and caravans of camels
wander between reason and rashness as if
their drivers forgot where they set out from
and where they are going. At the end of summer
solstice nights begin getting longer and the woman
whose beauty is stamped on my eyes dozes
on the couch facing the flickering screen
while I do my best to live as intimately with pain
as I did with love and passion, and when the doctor
asks me whether I entertain terminal thoughts I
am momentarily embarrassed before categorically
denying it, not to mention the fact that winter solstice
is still far away, and the cold, and the dark.
Moshe Dor is an Israeli poet and editor. He is one of the founders and editors of Likrat, the forum of a new generation of authors which caused something of a revolution in poetry. His very first collection, Broshim Levanim (White Cypresses, 1954), spearheaded burgeoning young poets in his native Israel. Apart from some ten collections of poems, he has published children's books, essays and literary interviews. He also translates from English to Hebrew, and for thirty years he was a member of the editorial staff of Maariv, a leading Israel daily.
Barbara Goldberg’s most recent book, The Royal Baker’s Daughter (University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), received the Felix Pollak Poetry Prize. She and Moshe Dor have published numerous anthologies of contemporary Israeli poetry, including After the First Rain: Israeli Poems on War and Peace (1998). The recipient of two fellowships from the NEA, Goldberg is a visiting writer in American University’s MFA program.
Original text: Moshe Dor, “Kichlot” from Beshevach Hasin’ah. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2011.
This poem is published in conjunction with Counterfeits, the 18th volume of TWO LINES, which includes this poem, along with translations of over 30 other international writers. To learn more and order your own copy, visit this page.