You’re my wall,
you’re my Wailing Wall,
not the one in Jerusalem, but here in our home,
built on my heart.
This is the happiness you’re capable of bringing me,
being a place to cry.
This poem is a note
I’m hiding inside you,
pleading to have more than you
to be familiar with.
This poem is a prayer
that the note will be found and heard
by someone other than yourself.
אַתָּה הַכֹּתֶל שֶׁלִּי
כֹּתֶל הַדְּמָעוֹת שֶׁלִּי
וְאַתָּה בִּכְלָל לֹא בַּמַּעֲרָב
,אֶלָּא פֹּה בַּבַּיִת
.עוֹמֵד לִי עַל הַלֵּב
זֹאת הַשִּׂמְחָה שֶׁאַתָּה מֵבִיא לִי
.לִהְיוֹת מָקוֹם לַבֶּכִי שֶׁלִּי
הַשִּׁיר הַזֶּה הוּא פֶּתֶק
שֶׁאֲנִי מַטְמִינָה בְּךָ
,מַפְצִירָה שֶׁיִּהְיֶה לִי יוֹתֵר מֵאוֹתְךָ
מִתְפַּלֶּלֶת שֶׁהַפֶּתֶק נִמְצָא
.עַל יְדֵי מִישֶׁהוּ שֶׁהוּא לֹא אַתָּה
ЗАПИСКА
Стена моя,
стена плача моего
Не на западе ты, а здесь,
в моем сердце возведена.
Стена горя и слёз,
ты приносишь мне радость.
Я кладу в тебя стих –
для тех, кто придет потом.
Так шепчут молитву –
чем тише,
тем лучше она слышна.
Translated into Russian by Nadia Adina Rose with N.K.
Gili Haimovich is a bilingual poet, translator and photographer. She is the author of ten poetry books, four in English and six in Hebrew including as well as a multilingual book of her poem Note. Her most recent books are her English volumes: Promised Lands (2020) and Lullaby (2021). She won the international Italian poetry competitions I colori dell’anima for best foreign poet (2020), the Ossi di Seppia international Italian competition (2019), a grant for excellency by the Ministry of Culture of Israel (2015) and other national and international prizes and grants. Her poems are translated into 30 languages and published worldwide in anthologies, festivals and journals such as: World Literature Today, Poetry International, 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium as well as major publications in Israel such as The Most Beautiful Poems in Hebrew – A Hundred Years of Israeli Poetry, A Naked Queen – An Anthology of Israeli Social Protest Poetry and festivals such as in Canada, Italy, India, Mexico, Hong Kong, Romania, Mongolia.
This collection includes poems written in 2020-2023. (Russian edition)
“The Lingering Twilight” (“Сумерки”) is Marina Eskin’s fifth book of poems. (Russian edition)
Launched in 2012, “Four Centuries” is an international electronic magazine of Russian poetry in translation.
A collection of moving, often funny vignettes about a childhood spent in the Soviet Union.
“Vivid picture of life behind the Iron Curtain.” —Booklist
“This unique book will serve to promote discussions of freedom.” —School Library Journal
A book of poems by Maria Galina, put together and completed exactly one day before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is Galina’s seventh book of poems. With translations by Anna Halberstadt and Ainsley Morse.
A new collection of poems by Ian Probstein. (In Russian)