{ Vicki Feaver: Judith. }

[delga]

Judith.
by Vicki Feavers

Wondering how a good woman can murder
I enter the tent of Holofernes,
holding in one hand his long oiled hair
and in the other, raised above
his sleeping, wine flushed face,
his falchion with its unsheathed
curved blade. And I feel a rush
of tenderness, a longing
to put down my weapon, to lie
sheltered and safe in a warrior's
fumy sweat, under the emerald stars
of his purple and gold canopy,
to melt like a sweet on his tongue
to nothing. And I remember the glare
of the barley field; my husband
pushing away the sponge I pressed
to his burning head; the stubble
puncturing my feet as I ran,
flinging myself on a body
that was already cooling
and stiffening; and the nights
when I lay on the roof - my emptiness
like the emptiness of a temple
with the doors kicked in; and the mornings
when I rolled in the ash of the fire
just to be to be touched and dirtied
by something. And I bring my blade
down on his neck - and it's easy
like slicing through a fish.
And I bring it down again,
cleaving the bone.

--

Judith beheads Holofernes.

Comments

[noorie.livejournal.com]

wow, you're really bringing on some amazing poetry lately!

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

I am on a poetry kick! But this, in particular, I really love. It is one of my favourites in the recent haul I have amassed.

[noorie.livejournal.com]

i wish i could share some of the poetry i love with you, unfortunately it's mostly in hebrew :( but! i have recently read a book i think you might enjoy - ota pavel's "how i came to know fish". it's prose, but also poetry in a way.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Darn my inability to grasp languages! (No, really; sometimes I wish I could just... touch a language and then eat it up and know it.) I am currently enjoying translations of Yehuda Amichai's work. If you have any names, possibly I can find (good) translations?

Sounds interesting! I have written the name down; thank you for the rec!

[noorie.livejournal.com]

mmm i dunno about good translations, but i did some digging for english transcripts of names...

Yitzhak Shalev
no english wiki page... we have almost all of his poetry books in our home and i've read and loved them since i was a kid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayyim_Nahman_Bialik
the "national poet". some poems that stick to mind: "el hatzipor" (to the bird), "lo zachiti ba'or min hahefker" (umm... hard to translate this one), "levadi" (alone, on my own, something like that), "be'ir haharega" (in the city of killing, a terrible, painful read) and, perhaps the most beautiful, "hachnisini tachat knafech" (let me under your wing).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Zvi_Greenberg
pretty hardcore guy, the alternative "national poet" of the revisionist movement, i guess you could call him. his poetry's like lava. haven't read much of his stuff, but planning on catching up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Bluwstein
used to love her poetry when i was in high school.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Alterman
esp. his 2 songs about king saul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Goldberg
not my fave by half, but there are a couple of lines in one of her poems which i can't get out of my head. can't translate either. but it's about someone showing her all things in the darkness.

2 classic poets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Gvirol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehuda_Halevi

then you have the books of prophets, psalms, song of songs etc, which i assume you already know :)

if you're looking for book recs, got some of those too!