Poem

Israel Pincas

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Original language

A MEDITERRANEAN POEM

From inside the ship sailing
far away, I
gaze hard.

The water has mercy. The evening
is like
a thousand years ago.

In our ancient sea
there’s nothing new.
Only the wind shifts.

I don’t think
I’ve missed anything.
Everything given ever since

is a gift.
Once a Florentine merchant
came and offered

red glass.
It was the year one thousand
four hundred and one.

I didn’t
have anything to give
for it. And he returned.

I’ll buy it now.
Like a thousand years
ago, tonight too

© Translation: 2013, Lisa Katz

שיר ים תיכוני

שיר ים תיכוני

מִבֶּטֶן הַסְּפִינָה, הַשָּׁטָה
לְמֶרְחַקִּים, אֲנִי
נִבָּט קַשּׂוּב.

הַמַּיִם מְרַחֲמִים. הָעֶרֶב
כְּמוֹ לִפְנֵי אֶלֶף
שָׁנָה.

בַּיָּם הָעַתִּיק שֶׁלָּנוּ
אֵין חָדָשׁ.
רַק הָרוּחַ מִשְׁתַּנָּה.

אֵינֶנִּי חוֹשֵׁב
שֶׁהֶחְמַצְתִּי מַשֶּׁהוּ.
כָּל שֶׁנִּתַּן מֵאָז

הוּא מַתָּנָה.
פַּעַם בָּא
סוֹחֵר פְלוֹרֶנְטִינִי וְהִצִּיעַ

זְכוּכִית אֲדֻמָּה.
בִּשְׁנַת אֶלֶף
אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת וְאַחַת זֶה הָיָה.

לֹא הָיָה
לִי מַה לָּתֵת
בָּעֲבוּרָה. וְהוּא שָׁב.

אֶקְנֶה אוֹתָהּ עַכְשָׁו.
כְּמוֹ לִפְנֵי אֶלֶף
שָׁנָה, גַּם הָעֶרֶב

© 1999, Even Hoshen
From: Mare Nostrum
Publisher: Even Hoshen, Rananna

Israel Pincas

Israel Pincas

(Bulgaria, 1935)

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1935, Pincas lost his father at the age of six and immigrated to Mandatory Palestine with his mother in 1944. He began publishing poetry in Israeli newspapers and magazines in 1951, and is the recipient of the Bernstein Prize, the Israel Prime Minister`s Prize and, most recently, the prestigious Israel Prize for Literature (2005). He has worked as a night editor for U...

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TWO SKINNY BIRDS

RETURN

A MEDITERRANEAN POEM

WERE IT NOT

BEFORE SLEEP

CLOUDY OR CLEAR

THE COLD AND THE HEAT

IN THE TRAIN WINDOW

Close

A MEDITERRANEAN POEM

From inside the ship sailing
far away, I
gaze hard.

The water has mercy. The evening
is like
a thousand years ago.

In our ancient sea
there’s nothing new.
Only the wind shifts.

I don’t think
I’ve missed anything.
Everything given ever since

is a gift.
Once a Florentine merchant
came and offered

red glass.
It was the year one thousand
four hundred and one.

I didn’t
have anything to give
for it. And he returned.

I’ll buy it now.
Like a thousand years
ago, tonight too

© 2013, Lisa Katz
From: Mare Nostrum

A MEDITERRANEAN POEM

From inside the ship sailing
far away, I
gaze hard.

The water has mercy. The evening
is like
a thousand years ago.

In our ancient sea
there’s nothing new.
Only the wind shifts.

I don’t think
I’ve missed anything.
Everything given ever since

is a gift.
Once a Florentine merchant
came and offered

red glass.
It was the year one thousand
four hundred and one.

I didn’t
have anything to give
for it. And he returned.

I’ll buy it now.
Like a thousand years
ago, tonight too

© 2013, Lisa Katz

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