This next poem is about my father.
And when we translated it, was always
his problem of whether to have certain words with footnotes
which are understood in one culture
and have a lot of footnotes in the translated culture
or just leave it and find some other word.
It's always a big problem because I
think footnotes are very good for books of science
and critical approaches.
On the contrary, it makes a very favorable impression
if there are a lot of footnotes.
But in a book of poems, I think it's a very bad thing
unless you do a thing like TS Eliot did in Wasteland,
where the footnotes altogether became almost a poem itself.
Well, in this poem, we had the Hebrew word,
which is a very famous prayer, סליחות,
which is actually a prayer of atonement or prayers
of atonement, which very orthodox Jews, about
a week before the high Holy days, get up very early
and go to synagogue and say his prayers
and return with the first sunlight.
So it's some kind of--
so, actually, we had to decide either to put סליחות with
a footnote, or else--
and, so, we decided finally on "early prayers,"
which is, I think, fine because I
think all religions and all creeds
know and like to get their believers early out of bed
because then you can't do any harm while you are out of bed.
So we decided just to call it early prayers.
"Letter of Recommendation."
"On summer nights, I sleep naked in Jerusalem
on my bed, which stands on the brink of a deep valley
without rolling down into it.
During the day, I walk about, the Ten Commandments
on my lips like an old song someone is humming to himself.
Oh, touch me.
Touch me you good woman.
This is not a scar you feel under my shirt.
It's a letter of recommendation folded from my father.
He is still a good boy and full of love.
I remember my father waking me up for early prayers.
He did it caressing my forehead, not tearing the blanket away.
Since then, I love him even more.
And because of this, let him be woken up gently and with love
on the day of resurrection."