Golden Jerusalem
GOLDEN JERUSALEM
In the desert sand nothing flowers except ideas
Yet in carpets of flowers it is suddenly blessed:
In the steps of Jesus, Mohammed and Moses
Towards Jerusalem never at peace never at rest.
Suffering long from Babylon and the Roman pogrom,
And from the barbed wire of Auschwitz, comes
A people with heads bowed in centuries of serfdom,
A people with eyes raised towards Jerusalem’s domes.
A young girl’s voice leads the song in a minor key
Always in tension. Always incomplete the melody.
To a single goal, the city of God, is the long journey:
Tomorrow Jerusalem, but will we yet see?
Moses was forbidden to enter the promised land;
Mohammed had to flee from there; Jesus went there to die.
It is always tomorrow in Jerusalem, never today. In the sand
An impossible dream, impossible idea of perfection may lie.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Note
Although not in any way based on the lyrics of the song,
this poem was entirely inspired by the song “Yerushalayim
Shel Zahav”, an Israeli folk song composed in 1967, a most
beautiful sound experience.
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