My heart burns <br />And my thoughts fly up into the air. <br />My torturers love me, <br />I give sustenance and shelter. <br />Bread I give him, milk and water, fruit, <br />Meats I give him, fish from the ocean, <br />Him she draws from me, <br />His thoughts fly over oceans. <br /> <br />In the ocean, deep, swims the leviathan, <br />My heart desires to feed it to my lover. <br />The Night Queen found it and describes its flavor. <br />With words she feeds him and with images. <br />With songs he pays her, music from his soul. <br /> <br />He had a tallit once, he wrapped it closely, <br />He was my antlered deer, I was his doe. <br />Now he has sent its spirit through the heavens. <br />He wraps it closely and his words fly eastward. <br />There lies Jerusalem, splendid with rainbows. <br />Blue are the heavens, green is the land. <br />Mountains can skip there, streams flow in the desert. <br /> <br />Here in the West we have built a fountain. <br />In a walled garden I will lie in my black dress and read. <br />But my heart burns and my thoughts are flying upwards, <br />Searching the skies and mountains and the seas <br />And never ceasing. <br />When will they reach heaven and find rest? <br />Wretchedly I roam, in my walled exile, <br />Listening to the mocking songs of mocking birds. <br /> <br />LRH <br />1.18.06 <br />Loosely translated from 'Ayala' by Rutl bat Mordechai<br /><br />Linda Hepner<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ayala/
