The Israeli government recently announced that it will be issuing new bills bearing the images of the great Hebrew poets Rachel Bluwstein (1890-1931) and Leah Goldberg (1911-1970). Tzvi Novick writes about the work of both poets and presents in original translation a poem by each. Bluwstein’s “Kinneret” (the Hebrew term for the Sea of Galilee) begins thus:
The Golan mountains: reach and touch them!
With quiet assurance they say: be still.
Alone, alight, Papa Hermon drowses,
And from the white peak comes a chill.There at the shore is a lowly palm.
Like an impish boy with hair unkempt,
Who has scrambled down and stirs his legs
In Lake Kinneret.
Read more on Lehrhaus: http://www.thelehrhaus.com/timely-thoughts/2017/4/28/two-poems-of-the-land-of-israel