Poem
Yona Wallach
HEBREW
About pronouns and sex English leaves its options openin practice each I
has all the options
you is he or she
I is sexless
there’s no difference
and all things are it – not man not woman
no need to think before relating to sex
Hebrew is a sex maniac
Hebrew discriminates for and against
is forgiving, gives privileges
with a big gripe from the exile
in plural men have the right of way
it’s a thin line it’s a big secret
in the singular chances are equal
who says it’s a lost case
Hebrew is a sex maniac
wants to know who’s talking
almost a mirror almost a picture
forbidden by the Torah
at least looking at sex
Hebrew peeks through the keyhole
as I did at you and your mother
when you washed in the shed
your mother had a big ass
but I never stopped thinking
the days passed like showers
you remained a thin girl, soaping herself
afterwards you women plugged all the holes
plugged all the gaps
Hebrew peeks at you through the keyhole
the language sees you naked
my father didn’t let me see
he turned his back when he peed
I never really saw him
he always hid his sex
the way the Hebrew plural hides a woman
the way an audience is masculine in Hebrew
the way the word word in Hebrew is masculine and feminine
there’s nothing like these sweet things
Hebrew is a woman bathing
Hebrew is Batsheva clean
a graven image not forbidden,
with tiny beauty marks and birth marks
the older she gets the more beautiful she is
her judgment is sometimes prehistoric
this kind of neurosis is for her own good
tell me in masculine tell me in feminine
every I is childlike an unfertilized egg
you can skip over sex
you can give up sex
who can tell the sex of a baby chick?
man created by nature
before a conjugated verb is planted in him.
Memory is masculine
creates sexes
the offspring are the main thing
because that’s life
Hebrew is a sex maniac
and whatever you women say in a feminist complaint
searching for stimulation outside the language
with an intonation that gives meaning to things
signs just of male or female in a sentence
will change sexual relations, make them strange,
mark every female, a different mark for men
when every verb and verb group are marked
what does man do to a woman
what does he get in return
what power does she exert over him
and what sign given to an object
and to an abstract noun and particles
we’ll get a sort of natural game
an emotional happening like a new forest
a game of universal natural forces
determining all the particulars
universal signs for all events
that may happen some day
look what a body language has and what proportions
love her now without cover of words
© Translation: 1997, Lisa Katz
HEBREW
© 1985, Yona Wallach
From: Tsurot (Forms)
Publisher: Hakibbutz Hameuchad /Siman Qri\'a,
From: Tsurot (Forms)
Publisher: Hakibbutz Hameuchad /Siman Qri\'a,
Poems
Poems of Yona Wallach
Close
HEBREW
About pronouns and sex English leaves its options openin practice each I
has all the options
you is he or she
I is sexless
there’s no difference
and all things are it – not man not woman
no need to think before relating to sex
Hebrew is a sex maniac
Hebrew discriminates for and against
is forgiving, gives privileges
with a big gripe from the exile
in plural men have the right of way
it’s a thin line it’s a big secret
in the singular chances are equal
who says it’s a lost case
Hebrew is a sex maniac
wants to know who’s talking
almost a mirror almost a picture
forbidden by the Torah
at least looking at sex
Hebrew peeks through the keyhole
as I did at you and your mother
when you washed in the shed
your mother had a big ass
but I never stopped thinking
the days passed like showers
you remained a thin girl, soaping herself
afterwards you women plugged all the holes
plugged all the gaps
Hebrew peeks at you through the keyhole
the language sees you naked
my father didn’t let me see
he turned his back when he peed
I never really saw him
he always hid his sex
the way the Hebrew plural hides a woman
the way an audience is masculine in Hebrew
the way the word word in Hebrew is masculine and feminine
there’s nothing like these sweet things
Hebrew is a woman bathing
Hebrew is Batsheva clean
a graven image not forbidden,
with tiny beauty marks and birth marks
the older she gets the more beautiful she is
her judgment is sometimes prehistoric
this kind of neurosis is for her own good
tell me in masculine tell me in feminine
every I is childlike an unfertilized egg
you can skip over sex
you can give up sex
who can tell the sex of a baby chick?
man created by nature
before a conjugated verb is planted in him.
Memory is masculine
creates sexes
the offspring are the main thing
because that’s life
Hebrew is a sex maniac
and whatever you women say in a feminist complaint
searching for stimulation outside the language
with an intonation that gives meaning to things
signs just of male or female in a sentence
will change sexual relations, make them strange,
mark every female, a different mark for men
when every verb and verb group are marked
what does man do to a woman
what does he get in return
what power does she exert over him
and what sign given to an object
and to an abstract noun and particles
we’ll get a sort of natural game
an emotional happening like a new forest
a game of universal natural forces
determining all the particulars
universal signs for all events
that may happen some day
look what a body language has and what proportions
love her now without cover of words
© 1997, Lisa Katz
From: Tsurot (Forms)
From: Tsurot (Forms)
HEBREW
About pronouns and sex English leaves its options openin practice each I
has all the options
you is he or she
I is sexless
there’s no difference
and all things are it – not man not woman
no need to think before relating to sex
Hebrew is a sex maniac
Hebrew discriminates for and against
is forgiving, gives privileges
with a big gripe from the exile
in plural men have the right of way
it’s a thin line it’s a big secret
in the singular chances are equal
who says it’s a lost case
Hebrew is a sex maniac
wants to know who’s talking
almost a mirror almost a picture
forbidden by the Torah
at least looking at sex
Hebrew peeks through the keyhole
as I did at you and your mother
when you washed in the shed
your mother had a big ass
but I never stopped thinking
the days passed like showers
you remained a thin girl, soaping herself
afterwards you women plugged all the holes
plugged all the gaps
Hebrew peeks at you through the keyhole
the language sees you naked
my father didn’t let me see
he turned his back when he peed
I never really saw him
he always hid his sex
the way the Hebrew plural hides a woman
the way an audience is masculine in Hebrew
the way the word word in Hebrew is masculine and feminine
there’s nothing like these sweet things
Hebrew is a woman bathing
Hebrew is Batsheva clean
a graven image not forbidden,
with tiny beauty marks and birth marks
the older she gets the more beautiful she is
her judgment is sometimes prehistoric
this kind of neurosis is for her own good
tell me in masculine tell me in feminine
every I is childlike an unfertilized egg
you can skip over sex
you can give up sex
who can tell the sex of a baby chick?
man created by nature
before a conjugated verb is planted in him.
Memory is masculine
creates sexes
the offspring are the main thing
because that’s life
Hebrew is a sex maniac
and whatever you women say in a feminist complaint
searching for stimulation outside the language
with an intonation that gives meaning to things
signs just of male or female in a sentence
will change sexual relations, make them strange,
mark every female, a different mark for men
when every verb and verb group are marked
what does man do to a woman
what does he get in return
what power does she exert over him
and what sign given to an object
and to an abstract noun and particles
we’ll get a sort of natural game
an emotional happening like a new forest
a game of universal natural forces
determining all the particulars
universal signs for all events
that may happen some day
look what a body language has and what proportions
love her now without cover of words
© 1997, Lisa Katz
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