Poem

Mois Benarroch

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Original language

IF YOU SEE ME IN THE STREET

and I don’t say hello
don’t think I don’t want your company
or that I am trying to hurt you
if you see me in the street
I am thinking up another poem
other words
that may finally
describe the line of sky
connecting my legs
to the town where I was born
a giant rainbow
if you see me in the street and I don’t say
hello
it’s not a declaration of war
but looking
onward.

© Translation: 2005, Mois Benarroch
From: Bilingual Poems
Publisher: 2005, Jerusalem, 2005

IF YOU SEE ME IN THE STREET

© 2005, Mois Benarroch
From: Bilingual Poems
Publisher: Moben, Jerusalem

Mois Benarroch

Mois Benarroch

(Morocco, 1959)

Mois Benarroch was born in Tetuan, (formerly Spanish) Morocco, in 1959 and came to Israel (“another planet”, he says) with his parents in 1972, at the age of 13. Fluent in English, Spanish and Hebrew, and in part self-published, he still feels like an outsider, but is accepted by the Israeli poetry community as an insider. He participates in national and international poetry festivals, and in 2...

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A DISAPPEARING PEOPLE

ANTIPOETRY

BEANS WITH TABASCO SAUCE FOR BREAKFAST

LIKE THE WAVE

IF YOU SEE ME IN THE STREET

THE SUITCASE

THE BREAD AND THE DREAM

On my going up to the Land of Israel

Close

IF YOU SEE ME IN THE STREET

and I don’t say hello
don’t think I don’t want your company
or that I am trying to hurt you
if you see me in the street
I am thinking up another poem
other words
that may finally
describe the line of sky
connecting my legs
to the town where I was born
a giant rainbow
if you see me in the street and I don’t say
hello
it’s not a declaration of war
but looking
onward.

© 2005, Mois Benarroch
From: Bilingual Poems
Publisher: 2005, 2005, Jerusalem

IF YOU SEE ME IN THE STREET

and I don’t say hello
don’t think I don’t want your company
or that I am trying to hurt you
if you see me in the street
I am thinking up another poem
other words
that may finally
describe the line of sky
connecting my legs
to the town where I was born
a giant rainbow
if you see me in the street and I don’t say
hello
it’s not a declaration of war
but looking
onward.

© 2005, Mois Benarroch
From: Bilingual Poems
Publisher: 2005, 2005, Jerusalem

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