קלה מידיי

by Gili Haimovich

הַלַּילְָה נוֹשֵׂא אוֹתִי

,אֲבָל לֹא כְּהַבְטָחָה

,לֹא כְּשֵׁם שֶׁאֲנִי נָשָׂאתִי אוֹתָךְ

,בַּבֶּטֶן

,עַל הֶחָזֶה

,הַגַּב

,הַכְּתֵפַיִם

,עַל ראֹשׁ שִׂמְחָתִי

,עַל צַוַּאר דַּאֲגָתִי

.בְּשֶׁלֶג סוֹחֵף

הַשִּׁירִים בָּאִים

.כְּמוֹ קַלִּים מִדַּי

,כִּמְעַט קַל מִדַּי

,מוּבָן מִדַּי מֵאֵלָיו

,לִהְיוֹת אִמָּא שֶׁלָּךְ

.לִהְיוֹת שַׁיּכֶֶת לָךְ

Too Easy

by Gili Haimovich

The night carries me

but not like a promise,

not like how I carried you,

in the stomach,

on the chest,

the back,

the neck,

on the head of my joy,

on the shoulders of my concern.

through swirling snow.

The poems come

almost too easily,

it’s almost too easy,

too obvious,

being your mother,

belonging to you.

translated from Hebrew by Dara Barnat

Gili Haimovich is a poet published in both Hebrew and English. She has five volumes of poetry that have come out in Israel, and her sixth book titled Lending Lights is forthcoming later this year (Iton 77 Publishing House). Her chapbook of poems in English titled Living on a Blank Page (Blue Angel Press, 2008), came out in two additions, the second one also includes Gili’s photography. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in journals and anthologies such as Poetry International, International Poetry Review, LRC – Literary Review of Canada, Asymptote, Recours au Poème (with translations to French), Poetry Repair, Blue Lyra, Bakery, TOK1: Writing the New Toronto, Ezra Magazine, Deep Water, Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, Women in Judaism, Lilith, and main Israeli literary journals. Gili works as a translator, writing-focused arts therapist, and educator.

Dara Barnat’s poetry, translations, and essays appear in The Cortland Review, Poet Lore, Ha’aretz, Crab Orchard Review, Lilith, Blue Lyra, Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Her collection of poetry In the Absence is forthcoming from Turning Point later in 2016. In 2009 she received a work-study scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Dara holds a PhD from Tel Aviv University, where she is Writing Director in the Department of English and American Studies. darabarnat.com