Thursday, February 27, 2014

TIME FOR EVERYTHING?


(Danke Friko)

A Man In His Life - Yehuda Amichai

A man doesn't have time in his life
to have time for everything.
He doesn't have seasons enough to have
a season for every purpose. Ecclesiastes
was wrong about that.

A man needs to love and to hate at the same moment,
to laugh and cry with the same eyes,
with the same hands to throw stones and gather them,
to make love in war and war in love.
And to hate and forgive and remember and forget, 
to arrange and confuse, to eat and to digest
what history 
takes years and years to do.

A man doesn't have time.
When he loses he seeks, when he finds 
he forgets, when he forgets he loves,when he loves, 
he begins to forget.

And his soul is seasoned, his soul
is very professional.
Only his body remains forever
an amateur. It tries and it misses,
gets muddled, doesn't learn a thing,
drunk and blind in its pleasures
and its pains.

He will die as figs die in autumn,
shriveled and full of himself and sweet,
the leaves growing dry on the ground,
the bare branches pointing to the place
where there's time for everything.




אדם בחייו / יהודה עמיחי


אדם בחייו אין לו זמן שיהיה לו
זמן לכל.
ואין לו עת שתהיה לו עת
לכל חפץ. קהלת לא צדק כשאמר כך.

אדם צריך לשנוא ולאהוב בבת אחת,
באותן עיניים לבכות ובאותן עיניים לצחוק
באותן ידיים לזרוק אבנים
ובאותן ידיים לאסוף אותן,
לעשות אהבה במלחמה ומלחמה באהבה.

ולשנוא ולסלוח ולזכור ולשכוח
ולסדר ולבלבל ולאכול ולעכל
את מה שהיסטוריה ארוכה
עושה בשנים רבות מאוד.

אדם בחייו אין לו זמן.
כשהוא מאבד הוא מחפש
כשהוא מוצא הוא שוכח,
כשהוא שוכח הוא אוהב
וכשהוא אוהב הוא מתחיל לשכוח.

ונפשו למודה,
ונפשו מקצועית מאוד
רק גופו נשאר חובב
תמיד. מנסה וטועה
לא לומד ומתבלבל
שיכור ועיוור בתענוגותיו ובמכאוביו.


מות תאנים ימות בסתיו
מצומק ומלא עצמו ומתוק,
העלים מתיבשים על האדמה,
והענפים הערומים כבר מצביעים
אל המקום שבו זמן לכל.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

A WALK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD


to admire the almond trees...






The almond tree is called "Shaked" in Hebrew all year round and it is very modest and unnoticeable, but in spring when it blooms so gloriously, and is not to be overlooked it is called "Shkedia"!

Photos by Uri Eshkar.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

SLEEPLESS IN NOWWHERE LAND


Two o.clock in the morning and my brain goes off on its own. Do you too experience your built-in computer playing havoc on you in this half sleep-half awake state of mind in the small hours before dawn? When it acts completely unorganized, presenting you with an array of mostly unwanted "windows", flashing bits and pieces of reality and fantasy on you and presenting you with all kinds of, mainly unrealistic, worries and anxieties dragged out of the depth of your unconsciousness, not obeying any rules and getting completely out of order?

Don't you just hate losing control in the dark? Well I do! So, my resolution is not to let this go further, but to take over. I switch on the light, tiptoe to the kitchen to make a cup of tea or coffee, and snuggle back into bed with a book. Usually after an hour or so sleep finds me again. If not I give in, get up and start the day before the first twittering of the birds.

Like now, yes I'll get up and paint a bit...   :-)