I, may I rest in peace (by Yahuda Amichai)
I, may I rest in peace (by Yahuda Amichai)
Translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld
Original Text
Yehuda Amichai, Open Closed Open, trans.
from the Hebrew by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld (New York: Harcourt, 2000). This poem is reproduced on the
Griffin Prize Web Site (from the winning volume on the International Shortlist 2001)
1I, may I rest in peace--I, who am still living, say,
2May I have peace in the rest of my life.
3I want peace right now while I’m still alive.
4I don’t want to wait like that pious man who wished for one leg
5of the golden chair of Paradise, I want a four-legged chair
6right here, a plain wooden chair. I want the rest of my peace now.
7I have lived out my life in wars of every kind: battles without
8and within, close combat, face-to-face, the faces always
9my own, my lover-face, my enemy-face.
10Wars with the old weapons--sticks and stones, blunt axe, words,
11dull ripping knife, love and hate,
12and wars with newfangled weapons--machine gun, missile,
13words, land mines exploding, love and hate.
14I don’t want to fulfill my parents’ prophecy that life is war.
15I want peace with all my body and all my soul.
16Rest me in peace.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme