Oberlin College Press

Judith Herzberg

BUT WHAT (translated by Shirley Kaufman)

Paper $14.95 (ISBN 0-932440-23-1) cloth $19.95 (ISBN 0-932440-24-X)

Judith Herzberg makes her home in Amsterdam, where she was born, and Tel Aviv. From that twin perspective, she writes poems of extraordinary compassion under great pressure of diction and form that capture brief moments of beauty and terror. Anyone who follows contemporary poetry can sense that she is writing some of the most compelling, acute poetry of our time that does not explain and does not flinch from witnessing the disturbing events we live through.

Shirley Kaufman is also the translator of Abba Kovner's My Little Sister and Selected Poems.

POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

The most terrible images, he said, don't
let go of me any more. I can't sleep,
he said, his head in his hands.
And poor drunken Jan
with his arms full of boxes full of apples
had to find his own way out the door.

We who are here lie awake,
see a chair on top of a wall
a flag flapping on a tree
a boy with a boy's hands.

He who is there is fast asleep
dreaming he is here and everyone whole.
Right now he wants to get up, hold the door open
for someone with boxes of apples.

--Judith Herzberg
translated by Shirley Kaufman