section ten of Mutable and Immutable

In a cage of blankets and stones
a cage of tables and closets
my banquet cage
a cage of brave strokes
slaps as kisses
a cage of beatings
what a wretched snappish cage
not bright nor stunning
invisible in the dark
a cage of speech sounds and stares
I stare from within at desires
you stare inside
we’ll extend hands
two caged beasts
I in your cage you in mine
cage of gold, pursed lips
the cage of your blindness
let me go don’t be a dog
my very dear cage
haven’t we agreed

 

Maya Bejerano has published ten volumes of poetry, and her collected poems, Frequencies, appeared in 2005. She is the recipient of, among others, the Prime Minister Award, the Bernstein Award, and the Bialik Award. A selection of her poems in translation from the Hebrew The Hymns of Job and Other Poems is forthcoming from BOA Editions in late fall 2008.

Tsipi Keller is the recipient of several literary awards, including an NEA Translation Fellowship, CAPS and NYFA awards in fiction, and an Armand G. Erpf award from Columbia University. Her translations include Dan Pagis’s Last Poems, Irit Katzir’s And I Wrote Poems, Bejerano’s The Hymns of Job and Other Poems, and Poets on the Edge – An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry (SUNY Press).

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