Twenty, forty years ago, I spent a great deal of energy and time translating Hebrew Poetry to English.  I translated thousands of poems by great writers and lesser writers, edited an issue of Pen Israel that included poems in Arabic and Russian, I edited Tel Aviv Review and Jerusalem Review (with Gabriel Moked’s ‘corrections’ he never told me about), and I published them in major journals all over the States.  For Free! But sometimes I would get flak from a writer – I remember the one or two who decided their English was better than mine and withdrew their permission. And worse.  

So I stopped, cold.  It wasn’t a decision, it was a repulsion.  Since then I’ve gone back to it once in a while – doing favors here and there – sometimes for money – but I don’t usually feel compelled.

All this is an introduction to the poem of Asher Reich his widow put on Facebook in honor of the anniversary of his death.  So appropriate to the situation at the present time.  Here it is:

Prayer for the Road

If without You there is turmoil
in the darkness of this way,
let me pass through, pass
through this long night.

Naked of lead, empty of falling leaves,
and no grove but nightmares grows in me.

Open a fresh firmament for me

filled with light,
and surround me with angels.

Do not make peace in Your heavens,
for angels are not like human beings,
who labor in adversity on this earth.
Make peace so that we may move upon these roads,

to cross the dark barrier of the horizon,
find our way home, home to be fulfilled.