Do Not Accept

Portrait of Yehuda Amichai
Yehuda Amichai 1924–2000

Do not accept these rains that come too late. Better to linger. Make your pain An image of the desert. Say it's said And do not look to the west. Refuse

To surrender. Try this year too To live alone in the long summer, Eat your drying bread, refrain From tears. And do not learn from

Experience. Take as an example my youth, My return late at night, what has been written In the rain of yesteryear. It makes no difference

Now. See your events as my events. Everything will be as before: Abraham will again Be Abram. Sarah will be Sarai.

trans. Benjamin & Barbara Harshav

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