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Atar Hadari

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Black and Gold Dogs

I was on a ladder - some kind of unsteady ladder
with broken steps
and I backed into a compartment
atop of a cupboard, an unsteady perch
and these two dogs gold and black bayed at my heels
and these great fish fried and yellow
vast and as long as boa feathers
were in my hand and hanging
like swaying tailed gold bars
and the dogs leapt at the fish;
the ladder no longer had more than the top step
the dogs were catching and clawing
at the yellow tail ends -
the golden bodies hung from my hand
were dragging as the dogs’ bodies clung
and weighed on all of us
and I considered jumping
letting the fur of the dogs break my fall
as hanging on my fish I jumped
and landed on them and scrambled
and while they were broken and squealing
made my escape - but I only heard birdsong
and sitting still in that compartment
at dawn chorus slowly woke
while dogs, slavering and growling
in far reaches just behind the ceiling
dragged off my fish.

 


Atar Hadari was an RSC Young Writer for 1999. His selected translations from the Hebrew poet Hayim Nahman Bialik, Songs from Bialik, were published by Syracuse University Press in June.

 

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