God-Full-of-Mercy, the prayer for the dead. <br />If God was not full of mercy, <br />Mercy would have been in the world, <br />Not just in Him. <br />I, who plucked flowers in the hills <br />And looked down into all the valleys, <br />I, who brought corpses down from the hills, <br />Can tell you that the world is empty of mercy. <br />I, who was King of Salt at the seashore, <br />Who stood without a decision at my window, <br />Who counted the steps of angels, <br />Whose heart lifted weights of anguish <br />In the horrible contests. <br /> <br />I, who use only a small part <br />Of the words in the dictionary. <br /> <br />I, who must decipher riddles <br />I don't want to decipher, <br />Know that if not for the God-full-of-mercy <br />There would be mercy in the world, <br />Not just in Him. <br /> <br /> <br />Translated from the Hebrew by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav<br /><br />Yehuda Amichai<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/god-full-of-mercy/
