Agi Mishol 시 "Woman Martyr"

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Edward Hirsch, 100 Poems to Break Your Heart 에서 (5)

 

Agi Mishol is a sly, subversive, empathic Israeli poet. Born in Romania to Hungarian-speaking Jewish parents who survived the Holocaust, she carries that history into her poetry.... She has never thought of herself as a political poet per se, although, as she puts in, "We're not sitting in the Himalayas meditating -- we're sitting here in turmoil in this mad, aggressive country and the politics percolates, seeps into my poetry."

   An heir to Yehuda Amichai, with whom she studied, Mishol seems closely akin to Wislawa Szymborska in the way she brings a light touch to heavy topics.

 

 

Woman Martyer

The evening goes blind, and you are only twenty.

Nathan Alterman, "Late Afternoon in the Market"

 

You are only twenty

and your first pregnancy is a bomb.

Under your broad skirt you are pregnant with dynamite

and metal shavings. This is how you walk in the market,

ticking among the people, you, Andaleev Takatka.

 

Someone loosened the screws in your head

and launched you toward the city;

even you come from Bethlehem,

the Home of Bread, you choose a bakery.

And there you pulled the trigger ou of yourself,

and together with the Sabbath loves,

sesame and poppy seed,

you flung yourself into the sky.

 

Together with Rebecca Fink you flew up

with Yelena Konre'ev from the Caucasus

and Nissim Cohen from Afghanistan

and Suhila Houshy from Iran

and two Chinese you swept along

to death.

 

Since then, other matters

have obscured your story,

about which I speak all the time

without having anything to say.

 

(2002)

 

 

   "Women Martyr" tells the story of the Palestinian suicide bomber Andaleeve Takatka, who, on April 12, 2002, brew herself up at a bus stop located at the entrance to the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.

 

   Mishol doesn't mention that the etymology of Bethlehem also suggests "House of War." The poem contrasts the life-giving property of bread to the destructive act of going to war by blowing up a bakery.

 

 

 

Agi Mishol [wikipedia]에서

 

According to Amos Oz, "Agi Mishol's poems know how to tell a tale, to sing a song and also dance – all at one and the same time. I love the splendid surprises in them, the subtle and exact sadness, and the mysterious manner by which she makes this sadness overflow with hidden joy."

   In 2006 Naomi Shihab Nye wrote: "Agi Mishol's poems feel perfectly weighted. Her mix of honest empathy and care and elegant wit is deeply touching and enlivening."

 

 

 

 

Rafah, Gaza, Jan. 2025 (사진: 뉴욕 타임즈)