Paper Bridges: Selected Poems of Kadya Molodowsky

The Unrecounted Page

The Unrecounted Page In an old, clever, and hallowed Book175 The unrecounted page is missing. But I was brought this missing page By a winter night in the month of Shebat.176 I glimpsed it, spread out across the clouds, Written in gray hieroglyphs, And the concealed script revealed itself To every heart cursed with unhappiness: There was once a Creation, another Creation. Fear emerged with doubt and treachery from the abyss. On that, ki tov was also written, And covered up with a fig-leaf.177 Around that cloud, new clouds Doubled and multiplied the script. I closed my eyes and cursed The terrifying hieroglyph. The joy of the hunter, And the jerk of the shot bird, And the red blaze of blood. On that ki tov is also written, And we translate—"It is good."178 On my table, the clever Book lay, In black boards, sated with wisdom. But I, lamenting, have read That old, unrecounted page. 387 Tis Vxnp ijn px - pyotz; H ,]IT H T px ?wm pxw n pS ^XD nyi Diyt^xn T » fx oxn ?'[&3f?§ p§ pK lin pS ,1X1 DJTDX p^x ,f nij? rx ixt? ]VJID t^x px &mxtw oxn >"IJ?DXVS DXT 'n pa's nyw njwsy^ px r-^s y^-H p§ DX^S ?7x px ?O3 ny»syV p-H tryiy&xrs rx 1942 388 Night is doubled upon night, God, How can it be borne? The sun, the stars—and the wellspring of their light— In them, too, a darkness is hidden. You are eternal. You will witness new epochs, the births of new worlds. Why am I decreed this day of desolate woe? This evil night— Of murder and of curses? My day is brief, a single breath, I am like the butterfly that dies in a single day. In its last hour, the butterfly sees The nimbus of your fiery hair— And I? Is darkness your last miracle? 1942 389 tra - T*? p a p'TUN! W i l * 7 X T 7X 0X11 Dyms x D ^ DDXJ T^X oxn px ^ a ps B^pnywa ^o w n T^X oxn px D1 * Djn tsp^s oxn ,Dym»^ rx oxri px 71* x p§ ix H ps nynD ayi ^ n DXT .t?rn yrra H pyny *px ^pyn oxi * ? X T nyrs nypmara x 7^ H - 7^ H •Ta px Eoxrnyj DXH )^x§ x yt 7X myn yi^?T 7ix x iy ^ 1 ,}»n H T » T'X DDxn -IWDX px ,DDxa yxix; x 7a t n y r w oxn ^ ^a nyD^y1 ? nyi oxi rx ntr;sx px •*]*n p a nyn^x 7T iDoxaixs toxn oxn 390 ...