Exodus - Marina Boroditskaya

So I was wondering how they crossed that seabed

When the whole watery firmament was combed, wave to floor

And the squelch, squelch, squelch, and the walls on either side

Going up and up like a great aquatic corridor

The babies were carried, the older children, I'm sure

Fell behind, shouting: Look! Look what I've found!

Was it really possible to walk the watery course

Without stopping once to lift a shell's pink round?

What wonders they must have seen on that bed!

The tentacles that jutted from the walls like booms

And yet not all of them knew why they fled

Nor remembered that behind them lay their doom.

And when the prophet Mariam beat on her tambour

And the sea walls bent, and with a tidal roar

Crushed the Egyptians, their horses, swept, destroyed —

Did they shudder, even briefly, before they danced for joy?

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Marina Boroditskaya (born 1954) Russia

Translated by Sasha Dugdale 

Source: Cardinal Points