Russian-Hebrew Poet
Avraham Shlonsky
Toil
Clothe me, goodly mother, in a splendrous coat of many colors,1
And with dawn lead me unto my toil.
My land wraps itself in light as in a tallit2
Houses stand like tefillin,
And like tefillin-straps the palm-paved highways all glide down.3
Thus a beauteous new-wrought township prays at dawn to her creator,
And among creators,
Your son Abraham
Is the hymnal poet-paver
Of the roads of Israel.
And at evening in the sunset Father shall return from labors
And like prayer whisper gladly:
Dearest son, my Abraham4
Skin and bones and veins and sinews:
Hallelujah5
Clothe me, goodly mother in a splendrous coat of many colors,
And with dawn lead me
Unto my toil.