Skip to main content

Ramy Ditzanny: Arachnon, Lord of the Lies (From Hebrew)

Arachnon, Lord of the Lies
By Ramy Ditzanny
Translated by A.Z. Foreman

Secreting in secret in slits in the stone a fat spider abides,
Yellow and evil and godawful stripes down his sides,
A species the desert derives.

To that rising thing
Each sunrise we bring
In our hands the gift offerings:
A chip of emerald, a babe of the flies,
A scarab beetle bristling and hissing black things;
A mottled blooddrop, a godly Burnabee bug.

And with a whole sacrifice fettered in webs till it dies
Together we behold a final convulsion in fire.

A beloved pet He is: our Rabbi and our Teacher,
Our heart's desire.
A tangled web He weaves between us of twisted love and abomination.
And with our belongings already we've brought the next creature,
The long, unwinding, writhing, reptile: spider-eater. 



The Original:


??? ?????
??? ?????

???? ???? ???? ????? ??? ??
???? ????? ????? ?????
?? ?? ?????

??? ???? ?????
???? ?????
?????? ?????. ??????� 
???? ??????? ??????,
??????? ????? ??????;
???�?? ???? ???�???�?????

??? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ?????�
??? ???? ??????? ?????.

????�???? ??????? ????�?????�
??? ????? ????? ???? ????? ??????;
?????? ??? ????? ?????? ????� ???? ???.


Romanization:

Ba?al ?Ax�uv
Rami Ditsani

Bas�ter bas�dek bas�la? ?akavi� �amen dar;
Tsahov ?avarbar meru�a? mexo?ar.
Ben zan midbar.

Dvar b�ker bevokro
Navo nevakro
Beyad�nu min?a. Le?aloto
Gezir izmaragd zevuvon,
?arpu�it ro?�et �e?orot;
N�tef-dam-nakod parat-mo�e-rab�nu.

Ve?et korban kalil kafut bakurim ?ad kloto-
Y�?ad ne?eze befirkus a?aron.

?ayat-ma?mad admor masat-lib�nu- 
R�et to?eva ve'ahava na?ava tevuya beyn�ynu;
Bexel�ynu kvar hev�ynu mitpat�let re?eva- leta'a ?ava

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rumi and Shakespeare

By Wes Jamroz, excerpts from his new book, Shakespeare's Sequel to Rumi's Teaching "Jalaluddin Rumi and William Shakespeare are considered to be the greatest poets of Persian and English literature, respectively. However, there is much more in common between these two titans of poetry who lived some 350 years and 2,000 miles apart. In his Sonnets, Shakespeare acknowledged that his writings were inspired by Rumi�s poetry. He referred to Rumi as one of �Alien pens� whom he was asked to study. He described Rumi as �He of tall building, and of goodly pride�. Shakespeare admitted that Rumi�s verses were so powerful that they were stopping his thoughts before he was able to formulate them. Although Shakespeare was strongly influenced by Rumi�s poetry, it should be emphasized that his writings were not merely some adaptations of Rumi�s illustrations from an Eastern environment into the Western culture. Such understanding would greatly diminish Shakespeare�s role. Shakespeare wa...

TUM (Urdu Poetry)

TUM (Urdu Poetry) ...