Two for Me at Night
Moshe Feinstein
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original Hebrew
Two things brought to me by night:
A shriveled leaf, a blasted thing of rot
Whose shoot of green vitality was shot
Out by the passing storm, fell right
Against my window in the throes of the near-dead,
To look on desolation-soaked shrouds of the bed
And said
"Oh cold it is beneath the grave's old plank,
Cold and dank...."
And a heh heh at my window, like the bearer of great tidings, tapped —
A laugh of rapture born out of a lusty woman's warm young breast
To intimate suggestively about night secrets, and the creases of a dress
Of black.
Like a gazelle the cry cavorted through my blood
Aroused a thirsty tremble on my lips
And said aloud: "desire, desire."
This it said
Then went off into exile of the night
Born off as a snowy bell's clear chimes
Into the distance where the blackness climbs,
The leaf still shuddering on the shrouds of my bed.
The Original:
Moshe Feinstein
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original Hebrew
Two things brought to me by night:
A shriveled leaf, a blasted thing of rot
Whose shoot of green vitality was shot
Out by the passing storm, fell right
Against my window in the throes of the near-dead,
To look on desolation-soaked shrouds of the bed
And said
"Oh cold it is beneath the grave's old plank,
Cold and dank...."
And a heh heh at my window, like the bearer of great tidings, tapped —
A laugh of rapture born out of a lusty woman's warm young breast
To intimate suggestively about night secrets, and the creases of a dress
Of black.
Like a gazelle the cry cavorted through my blood
Aroused a thirsty tremble on my lips
And said aloud: "desire, desire."
This it said
Then went off into exile of the night
Born off as a snowy bell's clear chimes
Into the distance where the blackness climbs,
The leaf still shuddering on the shrouds of my bed.
The Original:
שְׁנַיִם לִי מִלַּיְלָה
משה פיינשטיין
שְׁנַיִם לִי מִלַּיְלָה:
עָלֶה כָמוּשׁ, פִּתְקַת־רָקָב שְׁדוּפָה,
אֲשֶׁר יֶרֶק־חַיָּיו פָּרַח עִם הַסּוּפָה
המְַטיַלְּהָ,
נָפַל בְּחִיל־מָוֶת אֶל חַלּוֹנִי,
עַל תַּכְרִיכֵי עַרְשִׂי סְפוּגַת שִׁמְמוֹנִי
וְדוֹבֵב : קַר מִתַּחַת קַרְשֵׁי גוֹלָל,
קַר וְטָחוּב . . .
וְחַה, חַה, חַה בְּחַלּוֹנִי דָּפַק כִּמְבַשֵּׂר בְּשׂוֹרָה,
צְחוֹק־גִּיל, בֶּן חָזֶה חַם שֶׁל עַלְמָה,
הָרוֹמֵז סוֹדֵי לֵיל וְקִמְטֵי שַׂלְמָה
שְׁחוֹרָה,
כִּרְכֵּר כָּאַיָּלָה דֶּרֶךְ דָּמִי,
עוֹרֵר עַל שִׂפְתוֹתַי רַעַד צָמֵא
וְקָרָא: חֵשֶׁק, חֵשֶׁק,
קָרָא וְאֶל הַלַּיְלָה גָּלָה,
כִּגְלוֹת צְלִילֵי פַּעֲמוֹן־שַׁלְגִּית זַכִּים
אֶל שַׁחְרוּרִית הַמֶרְחַקִּים.
עַל תַּכְרִיכֵי עַרְשִׂי פִּרְכֵּס עוֹד הֶעָלֶה.
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