Nahanni: Hello. It’s Nahanni Rous, talking to you from my home in Washington DC in the midst of a terrifying week of violence in Israel: the killing of more than a thousand people in Israel at the hands of Hamas, with over a hundred more now held hostage in Gaza, and the Israeli army’s airstrikes in response that have killed hundreds of Palestinians. The Israeli Prime Minister has declared war, and 300,000 reservists have been mobilized.

Over the past four days, I have been thinking constantly about my friends and family in Israel, and about the many Israeli women I have met and interviewed for Can We Talk? They’re women who fight for equality, for peace, for justice and dignity. In 2017 we did two Can We Talk? episodes about Women Wage Peace, a network of thousands of Israeli and Palestinian women. One of them was Orna Shimoni, whose son was killed fighting in Lebanon and who spoke out against war and occupation. She’s in her 80s now, watching these new horrors unfold. Another was Yahaloma Zchut, a community leader in Ofakim in the south of Israel, whose Facebook feed is now full of pictures of Israeli families looking for their loved ones. And Vivian Silver, a Canadian-born Israeli peace activist in her mid-70s. Vivian’s kibbutz, Kibbutz Be’eri, is near the Gaza border. On Saturday, Hamas took over the kibbutz, murdered over a hundred people, and kidnapped many others. Vivian is missing and presumed to have been kidnapped. I pray for the safe return of Vivian and all the Israelis taken hostage, and for all of the victims and their families, whose lives were shattered by this attack.

Instead of our planned episode of Can We Talk?, this week we offer a poem called “Mishalot”—requests, or wishes. It’s by Esther Raab, one of modern Hebrew’s first female poets, born in Petach Tikvah in 1894. She wrote “Mishalot” in 1967, around the time of the Six-Day war.

It’s a wish for a simple, peaceful life, rooted in the rhythms of the natural world. At this moment, that life seems unattainable. Maybe in 1967 it did too. For me, this poem is a reminder that we may never be free of threat and fear—Jewish history teaches us not to be naive. But our history also teaches us that even in dark days hope can be part of our legacy.

So here is “Mishalot”– Wishes, by Esther Raab, read in Hebrew by Iris Bahr. I’m reading Catherine Harnett Shaw’s English translation.

 

–אֲנִי רוֹצָה עֵצִים יָפִים 

!וְלֹא מִלְחָמוֹת

וּכְתֹנֶת־פַּסִּים

וְלֹא מַדֵּי־צָבָא

לְכָל יַקִּירַי;

 

I want beautiful trees–

and not wars!

and a coat of many colors

and not uniforms

for all my dear ones;

I want rain

and green furrows

and houses

full of babies;

a calendar of britot

and a “brotherhood plaza”

and lightning and thunder–

in the sky;

and bountiful rains

on the earth

and a pink crocus

in the ravines;

and pinecones

on a scented bed

of pine needles–

and bulbul birds rejoicing

among leafy orchards

and sails of peace

on the Mediterranean;

and the fall maneuvers 

of white chrysanthemums–

in the parks;

and red balls rolling

along the paths

and the sleeves

of babies’ garments signaling tranquility–

on the clothesline…

 

 

אֲנִי רוֹצָה גֶּשֶׁם

;וּתְלָמִים מוֹרִיקִים

וּבָתִּים מְלֵאִים

;תִּינוֹקוֹת

לוּחַ־בְּרִיתוֹת

וְ“כִכַּר־הָאַחֲוָה”

–וְרַעַם וּבָרָק

;בַּשָּׁמַיִם

וְגִשְׁמֵי־בְּרָכָה

עַל הָאֲדָמָה

וְכַרְכֹּם וָרֹד

;בַּנְּקִיקִים

וְאִצְטְרֻבָּלִים

עַל מַצָּע רֵיחָנִי

– שֶׁל מְחָטִים

;תַּחַת אֳרָנִים

וְצָהֳלַת בֻּלְבּוּלִים

בְּעַלְוַת־פַּרְדֵּסִים

וּמִפְרְשֵׂי־שָׁלוֹם

;עַל יַם־הַתִּיכוֹן

וְ“תִמְרוֹן סְתָו”

– שֶׁל כְּרִיזַנְטֵימוֹת לְבָנוֹת

בַּגַּנִּים

וְכַדּוּרִים אֲדֻמִּים מִתְגַּלְגְּלִים

בַּשְּׁבִילִים

וְשַׁרְווּלֵי־תִּינוֹק

– מְאוֹתְתִים שַׁלְוָה

עַל הַחֶבֶל…

 

Nahanni: Thank you, Iris, for your beautiful reading of Esther Raab’s 1967 poem, “Mishalot,” or Wishes. We’ll hear more from actor and writer Iris Bahr in an upcoming episode of Can We Talk? Thanks for being with us.