My father Abraham set out alone, / leaving everything he knew, / seeking a better place / where he’d never been / because God promised him / blessing and the future.

I am in mourning / ever since my mother died / after my father stole me away / before dawn / while she slept / to slay me / and destroy his blessing / and my future.

When she awoke / her servants told her / that he placed me upon the pyre / as a burnt-offering / to his God.

An angel stayed his hand, / but my mother never knew / so she died / with a broken heart.

How she loved me, / filling me up as a goblet / with her tears and laughter.

And now I am alone, quiet / amidst the wheat and rocks, / beneath the sun / and stirred-up clouds / swirling like disturbed angels.

Can You hear me / O merciless God? / Bend Your world, if You do / and reverse time / that my mother / may be here with me / and we be / as we were.

…Looking up / a camel caravan – / the people appear / as tiny sticks stuck / in sand / in desert heat-waves-dancing.

There is my father’s servant Eliezer / and a young girl / growing larger / before my eyes.

-Lasuach basadeh- / I pray and weep / beneath this sun / and swirling clouds.

Rebekah to Eliezer: / ‘Who is that man / crying there / in the field?’

‘He is my master Isaac, / your intended one, / whose seed you will carry forward / as God promised his father.’

-Vatipol min hagamal- / She alighted from her camel / and veiled herself / for she understood / that this was her wedding day.

I entered her / in my mother’s tent, / and she comforted me.