Like Haiku
October 04, 2004
The news today reads almost like a haiku, without the focus on syllables. Or like any short, rhythmic, unrhymed poem. Just a little bit sad, just a little detached:
***
Palestinianians launch mortars at an IDF site
No injuries or losses resulted from the incident
IDF soldiers returned fire
***
Head of operation Days of Penitence
"We will not hesitate to penetrate
Deeper into Gaza if necessary."
***
I have been reading too much Suheir Hammad recently. She makes me feel inadequate, sad. She makes me wonder why I even care about Palestine. What is my damage? I'm not Palestinian. As much as I want that to be my fight it will never truly be my fight. I will always be from the country that sold out. Signed the peace treaty. My Arabic is harsh, peasant-like, not lyrical like that Levantine dialect I am sure she speaks. I grew up in the lush WHITE suburbs of Jersey, not the buzzing, multi-colored streets of Brooklyn.
And what can I do? What have I done? Nothing. I sit here and translate with a cold heart, not looking directly or too closely at the words, because if I do I will cry. Sometimes I tear up, when I read about the abuse that goes on at the check points etc. But then I just turn to Monde and tell her, and we both start going off, in sarcastic tones and refined speech about the state of the world. The death toll in Iraq jumps exponentially in the past three days. Over 30 killed in the past four days in Palestine. So so so many children. Thirty doesn't seem like a large number does it? But then I relate it to my family, my 42 cousins, to my circle of friends. That's like wiping out nearly all the people who matter to me in the world. I mean, really matter.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv wants to convince the world, or at least the Jewish part of it, that "cancer is a secular disease." Because in his view, we are all sinners in the hands of an angry God. G-d. And when we go bad, when we try to keep religion out of the public realm, what does that petty, angry God do? He gives us cancer. Yep.Forgive me. I am feeling a bit restless.