From Day to Night - Dahlia Ravikovitch

Every day I rise from sleep again

as if for the last time.

I don’t know what awaits me,

perhaps it follows logically, then,

that nothing awaits me.

The spring on its way

is like the spring gone by.

I know about the month of May

but pay it no mind.

For me there’s no border between night and day,

just that night is colder

though silence is equal to them both.

At dawn I hear the voices of birds.

I fall asleep easily

out of affection for them.

The one who is dear to me is not here,

perhaps he simply is not.

I cross over from day to night

from day to day

like a feather

the bird doesn’t feel as it falls away.

---

Dahlia Ravikovitch (1936 - 2005) Israel

Translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld

Source: On the Seawall