{ Dan Pagis: Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car. }

[delga]

Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car
by Dan Pagis

here in this carload
i am eve
with abel my son
if you see my other son
cain son of man
tell him that i

כתוב בעפרון בקרון החתום/ דן פגיס
כאן במשלוח הזה
אני חוה
עם הבל בני
אם תראו את בני הגדול
קין בן אדם
תגידו לו שאני

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And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
genesis, 4:8

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Twenty-three words are all Dan Pagis needs to convey an unimaginable situation to us. "Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway Car" is narrated by a modern-day Eve, en route to an unavoidable demise, keeping company with her son Abel and begging a non-existent audience to assist her in delivering a message she will not live to complete. Just as the Torah's first family is riddled with tragedy of the domestic variety, so too are these four players about to fall prey to the evils of the Holocaust, the greatest blemish on the conscience of humanity.

Taken from here; an interesting essay.