Tikkun Magazine, May/June 2008

ISRAEL 60 YEARS LATER

Around Jerusalem 

by Dahlia Ravikovitch

Trans. Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld

There is a train that goes round
And around Jerusalem
At night.
 
Birds there circle far above her,
Beat their wings, and with a clamor
In the dark they shed a feather
On the Jebus threshing-floor.
 
Black trees stand beside the track,
The tunnel calls the burrow black.
There's a sheen of polished rock
In the wadi at her back.
 
At night there's a train
That goes round
And around Jerusalem.
 
Mountains circle round about her,
Winds make moan from ruins inside her.
Birds are screeching in the calm air
And when night falls, owl eyes glimmer.
 
Mountains hang upon her breast
Like a crown, a regal vest.
 
A golem's clawing at her dust,
Growling like a hunted beast.
 
A clatter in the heart of dark,
In the gloomy hell-pit. Hark:
The golem growling Hallelujah.

Source Citation
 Ravikovitch, Dahlia. 2008. Around Jerusalem. Tikkun 23(3):31.