The Easiest Demise

Written by Zeev Kachel

Translated by Uvi Poznansky

Oh Wind, where will you carry me

Toward what fate, what shore, what bay?

Will I be dropped to an open sea

Or else become an eagle’s prey?

For what is death? I can’t tell

How beastly, really, might it be?

They say that Death will never fell

A young-old person such as me.

And so, who knows? I have no answer

No need to trust all those deceits,

Lift me slowly, oh Wind, oh mother

Or I’ll take cover under sheets

Perhaps it’s better to seek protection

Across the ocean, in a distant town?

I have a passport, a profession

Can apply some makeup like a clown

On the other hand, to live forever

Is not so good and not preferred,

And it’s not written in any charter

What in my life still lies ahead

All my acquaintances have long expired

For me, I think, it is a sin,

To be the last one is undesired

I do not wish to lose my kin

So if to die, then with no haggling

I choose the easiest demise,

A prayer, “God is full of pity”

A headstone for a modest price

With a rotating slab of granite!

A splendid cantor, a deep voice too,

The two trees, I say, cut down, just cut

And let them not obscure my view.

Here’s how I wish to be interred:

No eulogy at the graveside plot,                       

Not nude; but with a flag, thus covered

And never mind the proper spot

Across a stunning slab of granite

My name inscribed in golden letters

As is my poem, and my portrait

A funeral procession during stormy hours

The largest crowd with scores of cars

Pretty women sob in abundant grief

Wiping their nose with a handkerchief.

Obituaries in the newspaper

Some large, some small, both bold and dainty,

And that is all. And with no torture.

For now just bring me a cup of tea.

Let the music of words sweep you off your feet!
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