And we shall not get excited. Because a translator <br />May not get excited. Calmly, we shall pass on <br />Words from man to son, from one tongue <br />To others' lips, un- <br />Knowingly, like a father who passes on <br />The features of his dead father's face <br />To his son, and he himself is like neither of them. Merely a mediator. <br /> <br /> <br />We shall remember the things we held in our hands <br />That slipped out. <br />What I have in my possesion and what I do not have in my possession. <br /> <br />We must not get excited. <br />Calls and their callers drowned. Or, my beloved <br />Gave me a few words before she left, <br />To bring up for her. <br /> <br />And no more shall we tell what we were told <br />To other tellers. Silence as admission. We must not <br />Get excited. <br /> <br /> <br />Translated from the Hebrew by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav<br /><br />Yehuda Amichai<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/and-we-shall-not-get-excited/
