Chorus of Exiled Jews

When I paid off the taxi, I had no money left
And, of course, no luggage. My empty hands shall
Signify this passion, which itself remembers
O Daughter of Zion, when you lay upon my breast
I was like a soldier who lies beneath the earth
Of his homeland, resolved

You said. "I am an old woman. I thought you were dead
I have forgotten how often we betrayed one another
My hide is worn thin, covered with scars and wrinkles
Now only doctors gather at my bedside, to tell what
The Almighty has prepared for me

“A woman comes in to keep the place looking occupied.”
Let us, when our lust is exhausted for the day
Recount to each other all we endured since we
Parted. There is so much to get through, it will
Take until night. Then we shall rise, miraculously
Virgin, boy and bride

To me you are a land of Jerusalem stone;
Your scars are holy places. There, under
My hands, the last wall of the Temple. There
The Dome of the Rock. And there the apartments
The forest planted in memory, the
Movie houses picketed by Hasidim, the military
Barracks, the orchard where a goat climbs
Among branches

Your neighbor, the one who let me in
She was brought up on stories of our love