LOVE OF ITAMAR
LOVE OF ITAMAR BEN AVI
I feel a shudder at the back of my neck
Thinking about how Love once used to speak.
In the city of Jerusalem there was a very pure man,
Deeply in love and in a great pain of angst.
And these were the words of his love:
A flaming love,
Which was heard
By his beloved princess, Leah
“I loved my Leah – in spite of her will;
Oh, how I wish I could cross her threshold.
I love you so much!
I yearn to kiss you!
If only you would love me, my Leah,
I would be yours in life and death.”
And he said to her: “You dwell in my heart”
And he stalked her house and her desires,
Signed his letters in passion, Itamar Ben Avi,
And cried for her incessantly three years.
He threatened to take his own life
With his cold pistol.
And sang to her a river of tears
He sang, and sang and sang:
“I loved my Leah – in spite of her will;
Leah is locked and indrawn in her hideaway,
With her coal-colored hair and pure complexion.
He vowed to obliterate her image in his heart,
But his promise failed, and he returned to her.
And sometime after three years
At long last she went after him.
Since then when he walks the bells
Ring his poetry to her.
“I loved my Leah – in spite of her will;
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