"Like Rachel," by Dahlia Ravikovitch

[voleuse]

Like Rachel
by Dahlia Ravikovitch

To die like Rachel
when the soul shivers like a bird,
wants to escape.
Behind the tent, Jacob and Joseph
speak about her, trembling.
Her life turns head over heels inside her
like that infant
ready to be born.

How hard it is.
Jacob's love ate away at her
greedily.
Now she's dying,
she has no use for any of that.

Suddenly the infant's cry--
Jacob comes into the tent, but Rachel
doesn't even notice him.
Pleasure bathes her face,
washes over her head.

A great ease descends on her.
Her breath won't stir a feather now.
They laid her to rest among mountain stones
and did not mourn her.

To die
like Rachel.

From The Window by Dahlia Ravikovitch. Translated by Chana Bloch & Ariel Bloch.