To a Woman by Ariel Resnikoff

……………………..after the Yiddish of Reuben Ludwig

..

& when you die

I wont come home to you

..

…………with everyone moaning and groaning

…………over yr death:

..

I wont follow the parade after the hearse

through the streets.

..

I’ll buy a bunch of roses,

don my best holiday suit

& wander from street

to street—

…………between brick buildings

greeting everyone I meet along the way:

..

don’t be shocked—I’ve got to celebrate!

……………………………….can’t you see

it’s the dawn of my life,

I’ve (at least) discovered

whose death

………………………………………..to mourn

& whose life

I deplore.

Therefore,

 …………it is my holiday.

..

& tomorrow morning

when nobody remembers your voice

I’ll lie in a corner

hidden

………….by stubborn lips.

..

I’ll purse my lips.

I’ll sing to yrs.

I’ll sing to mine:

from our dislocation

 

..

 

Ariel Resnikoff is the author of Between Shades (Materialist Press, 2014), and the co-author of Ten Four: Poems, Translations, Variations (OS Press, 2015) with Jerome Rothenberg. He is currently at work on a translation into English of Mikhl Likht’s Yiddish modernist long poem, Processions, in collaboration with Stephen Ross. Ariel is an editor-at-large on Global Modernists on Modernism (Bloomsbury, forthcoming) and curates the “Multilingual Poetics” reading/talk series at Kelly Writers House. Audio and video recordings of his work can be found on his PennSound page at: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Resnikoff.php