Poem: "Miriam and Her Brothers"

MIRIAM AND HER BROTHERS

And the Lord said unto Moses: ‘If her father had but spit in her face, should she not hide in shame seven days? Let her be shut up without the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.’ And Miriam was shut up without the camp seven days; and the people journeyed not until Miriam was brought in again. (Numbers 12:14-15)

Beyond the camp in her tent, she lies,
A leper, whiter than the moonlight
Slanting in. She cannot catch

The bleating of babies, of sheep,
The blast of trumpets. Too far to hear
Goldsmiths hammering

Flowers and vines on the seven-branched lamp,
She is spared the seventy
Old men babbling prophecies,

The chorus weeping for Egyptian
Fish, cucumbers, melons,
Garlic, whining for meat.

Their retching from the rotten quail
Does not reach her. She hears no men
Grunting, no women snoring

She itches, aches, burns,
Yet the desert wind, hoarse and relentless,
Sings to her. With sand, it cools

Her wounds. She will heal,
Away from Aaron, who also
Whispered against the dark wife

Of meek Moses, perfect Moses,
Favored by the Pillar of Cloud.
Face-to-face, God singled her out

From her brothers— “If her father had
But spit in her face!” Let Aaron
Beseech Moses, and Moses beg

God for her sake! Oh, family!
Shamed? Unruly daughter,
She finds her voice.

 

Kathryn Hellerstein teaches Yiddish at the University of Pennsylvania. Her books include a translation and study of Moyshe-Leyb Halpern's poems, In New York: A Selection, (Jewish Publication Society, 1982), Paper Bridges: Selected Poems of Kadya Molodowsky (Wayne State University Press, 1999), and Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology, of which she is co-editor (W. W. Norton, 2001). She is working on Anthology of Women Yiddish Poets, to be published by Stanford University Press. Her recent poems and translations have appeared in many places, including Prairie Schooner, The Drunken Boat, Tikkun, and Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality.

Image: Yemenite Ketubah by Archie Granot. Archie's Hagadah project can be seen online at http://www.haggadah.co.il.