Wednesday, January 31, 2007

One of my favorites

On The Day My Daughter Was Born

On the day my daughter was born not a single person
died in the hospital, and at the entrance gate
the sign said: "Today kohanim are permitted to enter."
And it was the longest day of the year.
In my great joy
I drove with my friend to the hills of Sha'ar Ha-Gai.

We saw a bare, sick pine tree, nothing on it but a lot of pine cones. Zvi said trees that are about to die produce more pine cones than healthy trees. And I said to him: That was a poem and you didn't realize it, Even though you're a man of exact science, you've made a poem. And he answered: And you, though you're a man of dreams, have made an exact little girl with all the exact instruments for her life.

- Yehuda Amichai

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