Days of Awe-and Fear
HARNIK, RAYA
Days of Awe—and Fear excerpted from a poem by Raya Harnik Planes fly in Jerusalem's sky at night Oh watchman, what of the night? The same hot air as in that Yom Kippur when a phantom squadron...
...And the graves...
...The book is dedicated to Harnik's son, Gooni, and his fellow fighters of the Golani Brigade commando force who fell during the 1982 fighting in Lebanon...
...Tel Aviv: Poalim Publishing House, 1987...
...The same hot air as in that Yom Kippur when a phantom squadron crossed the holiness border followed by a great noise "awesomeawesome-awesome" on your walls Jerusalem I placed watchmen all day and all night Above them pass the F-16's as Gai and Evyatar are lit in the pilot's canopy as if they were their wedding canopies...
...Translated by Rabbi Israel Zoberman of Virginia Beach, Virginia, from Mishirei Har Herzl, Yerushalayim (Cemetery in Jerusalem...
...Where do they fly now on a September night continuing eastward ascending northward Oh watchman, what of the night...
...The knife and there's no ram in the thicket Who, who this time will be' your precious son Isaac...
...Not now But again I see the fire the wood...
...I'm enveloped in fears As if through fog pass silently the faces of Yuval Shai and Etai I love them Gabi and Amir turn slowly their heads away from me as if they knew that my blessings wouldn't help as they didn't help about five years ago I'm yelling in a suffocated voice Don't, don't raise your hand against the boy not again...
...Soon the sound of teru'ah and sheva'rim We'll bow and say "holy-holy-holy" while someone in the military chaplaincy will prepare the flag-draped coffins...
Vol. 13 • September 1988 • No. 6
