Friday, August 21, 2009

yiddish brilliance



With Broken Wings

How have I written my poems?
How have I imagined my poems?
They say: The Shekhinah has descended on me,
And suddenly it seems that someone
is standing over me
With broken wings, in the dark.

-celia dropkin

trans. Kathryn Hellerstein

3 comments:

Kirby Olson said...

What's the Shekhina?

jh said...

the shekhina is loosely interpreted
the "divine presence" referred to quite a lot in kabbalistic literature...it is "feminine" and may be compared to the idea of SOPHIA in greek culture of antiquity...jewish mysticism makes the claim that given certain states of the soul the shekhina is actually visible and imbues events like weddings and passover meals and moments in nature and first kisses that sort of thing...perhaps it is more "sensed" than tangibly perceived

Carmenisacat said...

Dear JH....iamsosorry...to have missed your wonderful post to bensonaz.

I will post it immediately and if that's a problem...let me know and I'll take it down.

It was so much better than my rot.

Peace

Meg