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Gabriel Preil: Celebration Beyond Things (From Hebrew)

Back to Gabriel Preil, the most famous Hebrew poet of America, who has the distinction of being the only Hebrew poet ever to write an entire series of poems about the state of Maine.

A Celebration Beyond Things
Gabriel Preil
Translated by A.Z. Foreman

 A celebration beyond things, 
A play on worded things beyond the light, the heavy,
beyond bread, table, car.
This mist, for example, or that sun. 
(And it is not important if the New York mist
is much different from that of Oregon, or 
for that matter, if Oregon's sky
has reservations about Maine's.) 
The thing of it is
I'm almost ready to swear 
The variations in the skies can drive
The clouds themselves crazy,
Or me, in any case,
Attentive as I am to the gamut of shades
Seduced by the weathers of
Poems and loves.

Even the rain-sluiced stone
Now celebrates something.


The Original:

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