Poem of the Week, by Yehuda Amichai (tr. by Chana Bloch)

A Quiet Joy

- Yehuda Amichai (translated by Chana Bloch)

I’m standing in a place where I once loved.

The rain is falling. The rain is my home.

I think words of longing: a landscape

out to the very edge of what’s possible.

I remember you waving your hand

as if wiping mist from the windowpane,

and your face, as if enlarged

from an old blurred photo.

Once I committed a terrible wrong

to myself and others.

But the world is beautifully made for doing good

and for resting, like a park bench.

And late in life I discovered

a quiet joy

like a serious disease that’s discovered too late:

just a little time left now for quiet joy.

–

For more information on Yehuda Amichai, please click here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/yehuda-amichai

–

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Alison-McGhee/119862491361265?ref=ts