Remembrance of Beginnings of Things

Leah Goldberg

We shall remember the wheat stalk in the greenness of her youth,
The time she stood erect with her head to heaven,
Thin was her blade but straight and proud.
And now bent is her head to the ground,
For heavy is the gold of her ripeness,
The crown of her full pregnancy.
Beautiful are her seasons.

We shall remember the tree in the fullness of his spring;
His blossoms were white and pink,
Trembling sunbeams glimmered in him on the branch
And the sweet fragrance dropped to earth
Like the tears of the bride on the day of her heart's joy.
And now he stands in the booty of his apples
Carrying his beautiful burden motionless,
Knowing the springs of times to come.

We shall surely remember these things
In the change of the yearly seasons and in the changes of day and
 night,
How the moon was fragilely thin
And very full, then round and died,
Yet his youth was to be renewed.

We shall surely remember the beginning of our love
When she was yet tremulous as a fawn,
A doe of beauty dropping her eyes,
And there she has become full grown
With her wide open face
And voice grown deep.
Beautiful are her seasons.