A week at home passed quickly, and we are getting back into the old routine. Edna is back to work (she never stopped working in NY, but now she is actually going to work). I went to IAS only one day this week, just in time to see the geese who visit every year to poop all over the Institute’s lawns. Then I realized (and this was stressed in an IAS-wide e-mail) that the flu virus is very active there (as everywhere else), quite a few people were sick and I had better stay away. Some of my group members came to visit me at home, one at a time, and sitting at safe distance. I plan to continue going, but not too often, mainly on seminar days, until it is safer. Edna and I had friends at home, went to a restaurant once, and of course visited our favorite Small World Coffee in town, which we missed dearly, a few times when it is not too crowded. The balance between avoiding infection and just living has to be maintained somehow – I hope I don’t catch anything!
The medical visits naturally became more of a nuisance. In NY we walked 10 minutes to the hospital. Now I go for blood tests, and several treatments like physiotherapy and pain management to a Sloan Kettering facility in NJ, about an hour from Princeton, and every two weeks I need to see my doctor in NY. The former is a bit of a drag, but of course is dwarfed by living at home. The latter is not so bad – we’ll go a day before and spend a night in town.
The neuropathic problems I discussed continue and are even getting weirder and worse. Besides the false heat signals in my feet that my nerves send to my brain (when my feet’s temperature is normal), I also get real heat waves in my legs (they become objectively much hotter than my upper body). All this happens mainly at bed time and night, and disturb my sleep. I get by with some neuropathic medication and sleeping pills, and hope this will improve soon.
As I am sure was clear from the recent sparsity of poems, my “twilight time” is practically gone, and I haven’t translated anything in the past month. This of course is generally a very good sign, as I am able to concentrate much more during the day, and at night, if I am not sleeping well, burning feet do not coexist well with poetry. But, there are still poems I translated at my twilight times which I did not share as I didn’t have permission. Well, a new permission arrived (due as usual to my brother Meir’s persistence), and I can share it finally. It is a children’s song. Some of you thought the poems I translated were too somber. I had in mind plenty of silly songs, and children’s songs to translate, but didn’t get to these, except the one below.
- The poet this time is Meir Ariel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Ariel , one of the most original and bold artists in Israel in my view. He also wrote music and performed his songs. This one is called “The Banana Bender” (מכופף הבננות). The original Hebrew lyrics are here https://shironet.mako.co.il/artist?type=lyrics&lang=1&prfid=166&wrkid=2146 and you just have to watch the brilliant clip that goes with the Hebrew performance here: https://youtu.be/UrnxJrmHRWY
The Babana Bender - Meir Ariel
Imagine what goes on there in the orchards very deep
At night once the hyenas and the crickets fall asleep
Appears, from here or there or maybe straight out of the blue
A giant-dwarf I cannot quite describe resembles who
The devil knows why can’t he leave a single fruit skin smooth
In every single apricot he has to slice a groove
In every orange rind he digs gazillion tiny dots
And any fruit which turns bad, he marks with brown rots
But most of all he really likes to bend all the bananas
But most of all he really likes to bend all the bananas
Oh the banana bender
Oh the banana bender
You must have seen the watermelons (every type and kind)
So now you know who paint the marks of slices on their rind
You must confess that peppers could have never looked like that
Unless our acquaintance folded them (to win a bet)
He shapes a nipple to each lemon, wrinkles to each date
And adds a crown to the top of each pomegranate
I must confess I almost really had a major stroke
Discovering just what that dude, does to the artichoke
But most of all he really likes to bend all the bananas
But most of all he really likes to bend all the bananas
Oh the banana bender
Oh the banana bender
Impossible to see him, even using infra-red
The best you glean is strip of light denoting he has sped
But visit the bananas if you’re not too spoiled my friend,
Where you can hear (perhaps) the knack they make when they get bent
And this whole crucial enterprise that's full of complex deeds
His giant-dwarf ancestors taught and trained him, yes indeed
Night after night he diligently mastered all the tricks
But bending the bananas, is his addition to the mix
But most of all he really likes to bend all the bananas
But most of all he really likes to bend all the bananas
Oh the banana bender
Oh the banana bender
But most of all he really likes to bend all the bananas
But most of all he really likes to bend all the bananas
Oh the banana bender
Oh the banana bender