Natan Alterman
About the boy Avram
While he was sleeping on the steps of his home in Poland at the end of the war, he is afraid to sleep in his bed
A Polish town
A loud moon
And as always clouds sailing by
When night-time comes the boy Avram
Sleeps on the stone steps of his home.
His mother comes to him
And her feet do not touch the ground
And says: Avram, the night is cold and wet
Come home, to your made up bed
And Avram answers her:
Mother, mother
I will not sleep in a bed like any other child
Because I have seen you
Mother, mother
Asleep and in your heart a slaughtering knife
Then his father comes to him and gives him his hand
And berates him, transparent and tall
And says to him: Avram, come home immediately
My son Avram, come home quickly.
And Avram answers him:
Father, father
There I will be afraid to close my eyes
Because I saw you there
Father, father
Sleeping quietly without a head on your shoulders
Then his younger sister comes to him
And calls him to come home crying.
However Avram answers her, you sleep
With the tears of death on your cheek.
The seventy nations come to him
And say:
Here we are!
With seventy orders of law and seventy axes
We will return you home!
And we will place you in your made up bed
And you will sleep there silently like your father!
And Avram in a dream
Cries out “Father”!
And calls out the name of his mother and she answers:
My son, be happy...because if I had a knife in my heart
My heart would be broken in two
And in the night there was silence
And the moon dimmed,
And against the shine of the black hunting daggers
Our Lord spoke to Avram, to Avram
Who was sleeping in the corridor of his home
Saying: Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid Avram
I will make you great and excellent
Go on, through the slaughtering knife night and blood
To the land that I will show you
Go on throughout the slaughtering knife night and blood
As an animal, as scarlet, as a bird
I will bless you Avraham
And curse your curses
*
- Thus, this chapter in the chronicles of the times
Where the world calls out: the refugee problem!
But that is not the problem
The clerks are heroes....
And not the one tearing up files and wire!
And not the one leading the ships to the sea!
Because they are led by ancient and high thunder
Because they are led by the order of the births of the nation
Because they are led by the word of the Lord to Avram
*
And Avraham shall fear and fall on his face
And he shall leave the house and the gate
Because the order that thundered over Avram the father
Shall thunder over Avram the young man