Linda Hepner - Ayala

My heart burns
And my thoughts fly up into the air.
My torturers love me,
I give sustenance and shelter.
Bread I give him, milk and water, fruit,
Meats I give him, fish from the ocean,
Him she draws from me,
His thoughts fly over oceans.

In the ocean, deep, swims the leviathan,
My heart desires to feed it to my lover.
The Night Queen found it and describes its flavor.
With words she feeds him and with images.
With songs he pays her, music from his soul.

He had a tallit once, he wrapped it closely,
He was my antlered deer, I was his doe.
Now he has sent its spirit through the heavens.
He wraps it closely and his words fly eastward.
There lies Jerusalem, splendid with rainbows.
Blue are the heavens, green is the land.
Mountains can skip there, streams flow in the desert.

Here in the West we have built a fountain.
In a walled garden I will lie in my black dress and read.
But my heart burns and my thoughts are flying upwards,
Searching the skies and mountains and the seas
And never ceasing.
When will they reach heaven and find rest?
Wretchedly I roam, in my walled exile,
Listening to the mocking songs of mocking birds.

LRH
1.18.06
Loosely translated from 'Ayala' by Rutl bat Mordechai

Linda Hepner

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ayala/