Love Of Jerusalem

There is a street where they sell only red meat

And there is a street where they sell only clothes and perfumes. And there

is a day when I see only cripples and the blind

And those covered with leprosy, and spastics and those with twisted lips.

Here they build a house and there they destroy

Here they dig into the earth

And there they dig into the sky,

Here they sit and there they walk

Here they hate and there they love.

But he who loves Jerusalem

By the tourist book or the prayer book

is like one who loves a women

By a manual of sex positions.

Translated by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav