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Son's Exile

S. L. Gordon

Requiescat in Pacem, Mater, my sorrowful Mother,
Kisman and Son, hence driven, tumultous decision,
Do you still know, do you remember
How much your heart yearns for him?

Mother, know you the kindness of the Mob,
Mercy for a son who has fallen short?
Tis envy that sends one to the stocks, sins
Violence -- belittled by skillful tongues.

Struggle, merely for crumbs to eat from the ground,
If only to touch your son, bending, reaching down.
Still, before there is further destruction
Bitter, angry voices, the cursing multitude, Listen.

Sighs from troubled depths of your soul burst forth
Touched by slender, moist tears
The goodness in your noble face, forgotten,
Arousing your spirit, your terror arousing.

Arousing your terror, the words
The words -- melting kindness, like water,
In the figure of your face, fine, your eyes
Such stock of love in that look in your eyes.

Words, words abound, glorious,
All around, joyful, joyful, and selfish;
Traces of dew, my boy, on Mount Hermon,
The descent, so beautiful, so brilliant.

Such transgressions,
Yes, old like me, my old mother
Troubled, sated with tears, an old woman,
Under house arrest, for my Father's transgressions, my mother.

As if I had violated the Sabbath,
The House where I suckled at her breast,
Moans of known suffering in foreign lands,
Without that gentle breast, fixed and shrunken.

Ponder remote troubles to satiety,
Your poor boy, betrayed to misery, in the womb,
Such memories, my mother, your love is betrayed,
A broth of subtle suffering.

Why refuse to permit such a gift?
A rolling stone, that gathers no moss;
Tell me, please, know you God?
Will they dry your tears, these Biblical Words?

A subtle conclusion, a subtle calculation,
You poor wretch, how well you know my tears' consolation!
Far away, a sweet flood of watery tears,
Will God free me from this prison, these jailers?

I await, mother, I beseech you, despairingly,
Clothing your son in needful melancholy.
My soul burns, my spirit rages,
Struggling for eternity with God's Love.

Translated by Jerome Raymond Kraus (2008)
© Copyright Jerome Raymond Kraus (2008)