Sunday, September 16, 2012

Poem of the Day: Rosh Hashanah Edition

Tonight is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It is the birthday of the cosmos; tonight, it will be 13,750,005,753 years old. (Jewish tradition, for its own obscure reasons, rounds this to 5,753. I suppose the 13,750,000,000 is meant to be understood, sort of like referring to '68 when you mean 1968?)

At any rate, in honor of that --
Who By Fire

And who by fire, who by water,
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
Who in your merry merry month of may,
Who by very slow decay,
And who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
And who by avalanche, who by powder,
Who for his greed, who for his hunger,
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave assent, who by accident,
Who in solitude, who in this mirror,
Who by his lady's command, who by his own hand,
Who in mortal chains, who in power,
And who shall I say is calling?

-- Leonard Cohen
Listen to the song here.

Shana Tova to all of those of my Noble Readers for whom the wish fits.

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