“… All philosophers glorified by the chronicles of culture,
Honorable thinkers.”
(By Pinchas Sadeh from “In the Central Tel Aviv Bus
Station, Afternoon, Rosh Hashana Eve”)
Plato’s not listed in the address book crammed into her purse,
And mythological creatures in her memory don’t blush
From her toenail’s red polish.
Even Aphrodite didn’t inspire
Hair falling on her nape, and the blue brush
Carving Botecelli’s waves
Hardly brings out lashes of prey
On her eyelids.
But she’s beautiful, a muddy and stupid beauty,
A beauty who splashes water blurring the written, erasing
The painted, and knowing that beyond flowers protected by law
A purple petal cuddles, swaying at the edge of a wild-thorn stem.
And when she speaks with you, forget about language for a moment.
Send the words into grammar’s stall,
Let the big second hand in the circle of her face
Tick the minute, which is not time’s slave.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Translated by: Robert Manaster & Hana Inbar