Gutten Erev Shabbos
I am blown away by this. I hope/pray to apply it to my life in a practical way. I am prompted to ask (again) how can anyone write this well? Click here to see the Hebrew. I beg to differ with one piece of translation. Check out the Hebrew for "in a heart of raving flesh" and tell me what you think.
LIGHT A CANDLE
By Zelda
-tt
Light a candle,
drink wine.
Softly the Sabbath has plucked
the sinking sun.
Slowly the Sabbath descends,
the rose of heaven in her hand.
o
How can the Sabbath
plant a huge and shining flower
in a blind and narrow heart?
How can the Sabbath
plant the bud of angels
in a heart of raving flesh?
Can the rose of immortality grow
in a generation enslaved
to destruction,
a generation enslaved
to death?
i
Light a candle!
Drink wine!
Slowly the Sabbath descends
and in her hand the flower,
and in her hand
the sinking sun.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 11:07 PM
6 Comments:
I agree with your critique. There's a lot I would translate differently in that central paragraph.
I would substitute "a great and luminous blossom" for "a huge and shining flower."
For "the bud of angels
in a heart of raving flesh" I would substitute "a budding of angels in a heart of flesh, wild and untamed." Or something along those lines.
What struck me is the word meshuga, which is pretty commonly understood to mean some form of crazy. And if I am not mistaken "holeil" is related to holelut, some version of ireverence/silliness/disrespect...
I just gave a shiur on happiness and cited the Slonim tradition that The Baal Shem Tov came to the world to teach two things, which are the opposite of two other things. He taught simcha and anivut, which are on the opposite end of the spectrum from ga'avah and holelut. Holelut comes not from a happy heart, but exists on the other end of the spectrum, the product of a sad soul.
That's what I think they meant by "raving," as in raving mad.
And "holelus" I understand to be wild, undisciplined behavior; partying et al.
Thanks. Have a Good Shabbos.
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