With a White Donkey

Written by Yona Levy Grosman

Translated by Lami Halperin.

With a white donkey my Messiah
Is about to come
He won’t come galloping with a sword and a dagger
They won’t sparkle in front of him in the light of a withering sun.
Slowly,
With much persuasion he will work hard to move
His stubborn donkey.
His legs are set into the ground as foundations of the Temple
And you can’t move him to the right nor to the left.
And others loaded onto his back as if a basis for their dreams
By which to destroy him
And destroy his memory.

With a light hand,
With cubes of sugar and sheaves of fresh grain he’ll be persuaded
To move his legs forward a step by step.
Not on the back of a donkey, my Messiah.
In front of him with persuasion
And from behind they’ll prod,
And from the sides you’ll hear his voice
In song and in folk tales
Thus,
With hard work he will come.
Oh, my Messiah,
Getting lost on various trails,
Crooked ones, winding and none of them paved.
Mountains, hills, even when storms cloud the horizon.
Ho my sweating Messiah
When the land is full of false messiah on galloping horses
Leaving in their wake
Rivers which are red.