Linda Zisquit Translation Folio: Poems by Nadia Adina Rose
Translated from Hebrew
Balloon
Count to seven,
count to thirty,*
land in Moscow.
Hot Potato!
The city freezes in its place
stuck to my past like candy to the palate.
The house that was my home –
the music box
with its strip of punched windows
playing with no notice of
end or beginning.
The neighbor doesn’t notice either,
pulls a string with my sister’s name
– the balloon flutters to the sky –
asks:
How is she?
My confused hands
plait the living and the dead
into one braid:
Everything’s fine.
*seven, shiva, the number of days of ‘sitting shiva” after a death when the mourners sit on low chairs; thirty, shloshim, the number of days of the mourning ritual that follows a death.
בלון
,סוֹפֶרֶת שִׁבְעָה
,סוֹפֶרֶת שְׁלוֹשִׁים
.נוֹחֶתֶת בְּמוֹסְקְבָה
!דָּג מָלוּחַ
,הָעִיר קוֹפֵאת בִּמְקוֹמָהּ
.דְּבוּקָה לַעֲבָרִי כְּמוֹ סֻכָּרִיָּה לַחֵךְ
— הַבַּיִת שֶׁהָיָה בֵּיתִי
תֵּבַת נְגִינָה
,עִם סֶרֶט חַלּוֹנוֹת מְנֻקָּבִים
מִתְנַגֵּן בְּלִי לְהַבְחִין
.בֵּין סוֹף לְהַתְחָלָה
,גַּם הַשְׁכֵנָה לֹא מַבְחִינָה
מוֹשֶׁכֶת בְּחוּט אֶת שֵׁם אֲחוֹתִי
– הַבָּלוֹן הַמִּתְעוֹפֵף לַשָׁמַיִם –
:שׁוֹאֶלֶת
?מָה שְׁלוֹמָהּ
יָדַי הַמְּבֻלְבָּלוֹת
קוֹלְעוֹת חַיִּים וּמֵתִים
:לְצַמָּה אַחַת
.הַכֹּל בְּסֵדֶר
Shloshim*
My mother escaped the net
of the nursing home, the hospital—
a gold fish
no longer fulfilling their wishes.
For a month
the lifeguards raised a black flag,
cleared the sea of people,
let her jump, dive, paddle
deep and wide.
*shloshim = thirty, referring to the thirty days of mourning after a death
שלושים
אִמָּא נִמְלְטָה מִמִּכְמֹרֶת
—בֵּית הָאָבוֹת, בֵּית הַחוֹלִים
דָּג זָהָב
שֶׁכְּבָר לֹא מְמַמֵּשׁ אֶת מִשְׁאָלוֹתֵיהֶם
בְּמֶשֶׁךְ חֹדֶשׁ
,הֵנִיפוּ הַמַּצִּילִים דֶּגֶל שָׁחֹר
,פִּנּוּ אֶת הַיָּם מֵאֲנָשִׁים
הִנִּיחוּ לָהּ לִקְפֹּץ, לִצְלֹל, לְהִשְׁתַּכְשֵׁךְ
.לְעָמְקוֹ וּלְרָחְבּוֹ
Grown Up
They place me next to autumn
like a child to a height ruler
and on it they mark a new scar:
How you have grown!
Above me clouds are lifted, small and soft,
sacks of flour on heaven’s back.
From their height brown earth appears
a loaf of bread sliced to receive
those who no longer need feeding
The graves of my mother and father are close
like halves of a folding table.
גדולה
מַצְמִידִים אוֹתִי לִסְתָו
כְּמוֹ יַלְדָּהּ לְסַרְגֵּל הַגֹּבַהּ
:וּמְסַמְּנִים עָלָיו צַלֶּקֶת חֲדָשָׁה
!כַּמָּה גָּדַלְתְּ
,מֵעָלַי נִישָּׂאִים הָעֲנָנִים, קְטַנִּים וְרַכִּים
.שַׂקֵּי קֶמַח עַל גַּבֵּי הַשָּׁמַיִם
מִמְּרוֹמַם הָאֲדָמָה הַחוּמָה נִרְאֵית
כִּכָּר לֶחֶם הַנִפְרֶסֶת לְהָכִיל
אֶת מִי שֶׁכְּבָר אֵינָם זְקוּקִים לַאֲכִילָה
הַקְּבָרִים שֶׁל אִמִּי וְאָבִי קְרוֹבִים
.כְּחֲצָאֵי שֻׁלְחָן נִפְתָּח
More Poetry Translations by Linda Zisquit:
Nadia Adina Rose, a native of Moscow, immigrated to Israel when she was 22. She is an artist and an author. Her first book of poems, ‘Snow Ink ‘, was published by ‘Helicon-Afik’, Israel in 2015 and was awarded the Israel Ministry of Culture Prize. Her second collection, “In the Belly of the Wolf” has been awarded the ACUM prize.
Linda Stern Zisquit has published five collections of poetry and several volumes of translations from Hebrew poetry including Wild Light: Selected Poems of Yona Wallach for which she received an NEA Translation Award and was shortlisted for the PEN Translation Award. For many years she was Poetry Coordinator for the Shaindy Rudoff MA in Creative Writing Program at Bar Ilan.