Agi Mishol
Monday
Translated from the Hebrew by Lisa Katz
So what have we got?
The sweet scent of jasmine,
the drawing of an orange sun
discovered suddenly
while cutting the persimmon
in half
at the first volley of light.
The chicory flowers’
morning blue,
the entire meadow,
a cluster of snails
on top of a sea onion stalk
and there was also the word
"wagtail."
What else was there?
The cicada requiem,
pink sheep in the sloping
sky,
and the soft, much-kissed
down
on the bottom of the cat’s
ear
and that’s it, I think
that’s what we had
today.
Agi Mishol’s
poetry appears (with an interview) in the May/June 2004 World
Literature Today, and in the March/April 2004 Tikkun; she
spoke at NYU in April. A peach and persimmon farmer, she is currently
lecturer in poetry at Tel Aviv University, and a teacher at Alma
College. Her eleventh book of poetry recently entered its 4th printing
in Israel.
Lisa Katz is co-editor of the Israeli pages
of the Holland-based Poetry International web site (http://israel.poetryinternational.org);
she teaches in the English Department of the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. Her poetry appears in Prairie Schooner Spring 2004;
her translations have appeared in American Poetry Review and
The New Yorker, and numerous other magazines.
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