Saturday, September 23, 2006

Poem for Saturday


Next Year
By Ehud Manor
Translated by Uri Cohen


Next year we will sit on the porch
And count the migrating birds.
Children on vacation will play catch
Between the house and the fields.
You will see, you will see
How good it will be
Next year.

Red grapes will ripen till the evening
And will be served chilled to the table.
Languid winds will carry to the crossroads
Old newspapers and a cloud.
You will see, you will see
How good it will be
Next year.

Next year we will spread out our hands
Towards the radiant light.
A white heron like a light will spread her wings
And within them the sun will rise.
You will see, you will see
How good it will be
Next year.

--------

A couple of people asked about the music to which I set my son's Bar Mitzvah slide show -- that was a piano arrangement by Jon Simon, but the song is actually by Nurit Hirsch and it has lyrics. Here is a transliteration of the Hebrew. The last two lines of each verse repeat.

Bashana Haba'a
By Ehud Manor


Bashana haba'a neysheyv al hamirpeset
V'nispor tziporim nodedot
Yeladim bachufsha y'sachaku tofeset
Beyn habayit l'veyn hasadot
Od tireh, od tireh kama tov yih'yeh
Bashana, bashana haba'a

Anavim adumim yavshilu ad ha'erev
V'yugshu tzonenim lashulchan
V'ruchot r'dumim, yis'u al em haderech
Itonim y'shanim b'anan
Od tireh, od tireh kama tov yih'yeh
Bashana, bashana haba'a

Bashana haba'a nifros kapot yadayim
Mul ha’or hanigar halavan,
Anafa levana tifros ba'or k'nafayim
V'hashemesh tizrach b'tochan
Od tireh, od tireh kama tov yih'yeh
Bashana, bashana haba'a

--------


Happy New Year, Happy Mabon and Happy Equinox, depending on your faith. I had a quiet day writing a review of "Day of the Dove" and the site columns, folding the laundry that didn't get finished yesterday and filling out a bunch of assorted forms that had to be taken care of. In the evening we had dinner at my parents' with old friends of theirs and their children and one grandchild; my younger son and the grandchild spent much of the evening down the basement picking out tunes on the piano, and I chatted with the oldest son (not married, though he and I were briefly "engaged" when we were children -- at least in my mind, since we carpooled to nursery school together) and ate lots of matzoh balls, gefilte fish, carrot souffle, latkes and too much else to list without embarrassment. Guess what the first thing my father said to me was, after hello? "Your sister can come on vacation with us next spring break! But you're going to England?" Graaaar, haven't we been THROUGH this already?

So, yeah, not precisely the most relaxing opening to the new year, and then we also got snapped at for not wanting to get to synagogue an entire hour early like we did last year, which requires standing around with very bored kids in a ridiculously crowded lobby which always leaves me swearing that I'll convert before I return to this synagogue. Sorry, Dad, but you are driving by yourself if you want to be there a freakin' hour early. (The plan is always that we go out to brunch together before services, which should be nice as there is a very good pancake house between our homes and shul, but not so much when father is already pacing two full hours before services start.) Man, I hate complaining about my parents this much but it feels like it's been endless, like I got no break after the Bar Mitzvah! We missed the new Meerkat Manor but watched several of the reruns, and I don't think younger son actually knew the difference. *g*

: Just the facts, ma'am
1. Where were you last night?
At home, watching Pride and Prejudice and doing stuff on the computer.
2. Did you speak with anyone? My husband, both my children and .
3. What were you wearing? A long sleeve tie-dye t-shirt and sweatpants.
4. What did you eat or drink? Chocolate fondue (chocolate left over from chocolate fountain at son's Bar Mitzvah) and tea.
5. Can anyone verify your whereabouts from midnight to 5am? I was in bed with my husband the entire time!

: Can be blamed completely on your friendly moderator's growly stomach
1. Given a choice, and imagining that money and time were no object, would you rather cook dinner, eat out or order in?
Eat out at someplace excellent but not a long schlep away.
2. What is the most elaborate meal you've ever prepared yourself or purchased at a restaurant? At my grandmother's 80th birthday party at an excellent restaurant in Chinatown at the intersection of Wall Street and The Bowery, we had course after course of dim sum. And on my honeymoon we had a fabulous meal at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada. But I don't remember the details of either!
3. What food do you find yourself making and/or eating way too much? Anything involving chocolate and cheese.
4. What was your most disastrous cooking/eating out experience? Every time I have tried to cook anything that involved a stovetop it was a disaster. Eating out was probably the time a waiter spilled hot crab soup all over my younger son.
5. Would you rather cook for someone else or have them cook for you? Oh, VERY much the latter, unless the someone else likes macaroni and cheese out of the box, microwaved chicken nuggets, instant soup, etc.

: What are your five favorite action/fight scenes?
1. Kirk vs. Spock with the Lirpa
in "Amok Time" -- Star Trek
2. Battle of the Cross-Dressed Pillar-Climbing Concubines -- Mulan
3. Maximus vs. Commodus -- Gladiator
4. The Giant Hamster Wheel of Doom -- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
5. Hans Gruber vs. John McClane on the 31st floor of the Nakatomi Building -- Die Hard


totally made my evening with this Washington Post article, "Bosom Buddies, Redefined: On 'Boston Legal,' Denny & Alan Go Straight to the Heart of Male Bonding" which in addition to calling them "the best love story on television" and "the best example of postmodern, heterosexual man-love" compares Denny and Alan to Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin! And Vorenus and Pullo from Rome! It's supposed to appear in the Sunday paper, so I will have an actual print copy and am hoping for illustrations (pink flamingos or at least facial masques at the spa -- I swiped the Shatner-cover Cigar Aficionado from the Marriott last weekend because the flamingo photo was in there as well as lots of Kirk and Spock!) In the late evening, in a fit of insanity, we watched Stargate Atlantis, the first of a two-parter whose backstory we know next to nothing about, which did not prevent us from enjoying it greatly because among the guest stars were Richard Dean Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, Robert Picardo, Beau Bridges and a woman we know we recognize but cannot figure out from where -- the one playing the Ancient. I know I'm supposed to be all about the McShep love, but I still find that Weir gets most of my attention, closely followed by Ronon. *g*


This is one of my favorite pieces of Israeli art...the cloud and Moses' cloak are made entirely of Hebrew letters, the story of the exodus from Egypt. The artist, Leon Azoulay, has created serigraphs containing the entirety of the Five Books of Moses in similar form, plus the Books of Psalms, Ruth, Esther and others.


I love the idea that letters are sacred, or, to quote Richard Zimler from The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, "Books are created from holy letters, just as angels are. An angel is nothing but a book given heavenly form." There, now I feel more spiritual. Besides, it is past the equinox now, and is a beautiful cool night and we have harvest candles burning and George Winston's Autumn on the stereo. Sometimes it doesn't take much.

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