Whence does your dark hair come,
the sweet name with the almond sound?
You gleam of morning, and not because of youth-
From the first dawn you came, some thousand years before.
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Promise us Jericho, wake above the Psalter,
the source of the Jordan is in your hand,
and surprise the murderers as you stone them
and, immediately, see your second land!
Stir, work the miracle in every stony breast,
that tears might overrun the stone.
Baptise yourself with heated water.
Stay alien, till we are also alien to ourselves.
Often, snow will fall into your cradle.
Beneath the rockers the creak of ice.
Even if you sleep deeply, the world is conquered.
The Red Sea withdraws its waters!
translated by Mary O'Donnell