Moysey Fishbeyn

 

"Herr: es ist Zeit."

Rainer Maria Rilke

 

 

...thunders, atrocities, charred houses, and stampedes.

The time has come, Lord: a moment of twilight prayer,
weightless winds shall touch the bodies,
and torrents shall flog the shoulders clad in rags,
a whisper: "... I shall see the Temple"
(...wine, a loaf of bread, a table set for supper...),
a thought: "...light shall burst forth through the fog",
the time has come: silent snowfall, the manna from beyond,
is buried in the fissured plain,
the time has come, Lord: yonder- avaricious hordes,
the time has come, Lord: yonder- white silence, altared,
and gifted to the blood-soaked sand.

 

Kyiv, March 9, 2008

 

Tranlated by Roman Turovsky-Savchuk,

New York, March 9, 2008

THE RAVINE

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