On the night of the great fire I was mesmerized
I was addicted to fire
To the nature that consumes itself
To the terrible beauty
In the disaster of others
*
So much the fire destroyed:
Six million trees
Twenty-four thousand turtles
(who treated each other with respect and crawled patiently to their deaths)
Rare orchid tubers
Species of lizards and small mammals
And my soul
*
All night the fire burned, raging
In the woods. Some escaped between the pages of the scroll
In the Forest of the Martyrs. Eight meters of bronze
In which Korczak and the figure of R. Aryeh Levin were cast together.
The lips of an immigrant kiss the ashen ground and a pioneer woman bears a jug.
The entire Jewish story ablaze again at once
*
In the scroll, in the midst of the fiery parchment
Rapaport cast David too
Playing music and receiving the passersby
Now I lift up my voice drier than embers
To these burnt ones, to the mountains
*
And he does not come, my help,
And will not come the next day,
A red sun will burn again in the smoke
Boys and old men will cease to exist again
Again the wilderness will suffocate the heavens
And the streets of my city.
*
On the second night of the great fire, I was again mesmerized
I was addicted again to the fire
To the nature that consumes itself
To the terrible beauty
In the disaster of others
And I wanted to run to the fire
To be like the madmen
In the absent woods
To emerge another, Elul-like
On both sides
(Elul 5771, August - September 2021)
Translated from the Hebrew by Larry Barak
Eliaz Cohen is a well known Israeli poet, editor of the "Mashiv Haruach" magazine and leader of the "Eretz Lekulam" movement. He lives at Kibbutz Kfar Etzion.