Jerusalem – Pinhas Sadeh

On High you float
among rejoicing stars
on light drunk pathways
of unfathomable worlds.
Your forehead adorned in flowers
of lilac and silk
Drops of Prophet-Blood
forever frozen in your crown.

But not one grain of dust
has yet stuck to your walls.
Your olive and palm trees
rooted in the sky.
No path leads to you
not through mountains, not by sea,
only a heart lost in despair
might to you find a road.

In your memory still burns
in fire and gold your turrets
and the Son of Jesse in your halls
from the depths calling Yah.
Ben Amoz still beholds
Adonai enthroned,
and the Galilean, blood-bathed,
Kneeling beneath his brown cross.

Smiling gently, you sail
upon Cherub and Seraph wings,
above the yellow plains of Asia
and the smoke of European villages.
You pass over the lands of nations
crouching in darkness, idiotic,
for a moment they tremble, fight,
and again sink into the inexplicable dream

Heralded from the East, above
the blood rivers of Babylon
past the hills of Spain
and the horrid forests of Germany.
The rats shall not see you
burrowing in their papers,
but the Ocean, with green hymns,
will carry your praise.

Have mercy, please, heavenly flower,
upon the tortured, mortal earth
muted under the load
of agony, evil and folly.
Upon me too, mercy please,
a passerby in this world,
stumbling in the wasteland
in the dark night of the soul.

Above the Satanic darkness
of the pain-ridden world,
your white corpse shines,
bride of Elohim.
Fortunate is the one who beholds
Your Radiant beloved face,
fortunate is the one who kisses
your white feet.