Passing your bed each day
So moist
deep, soft, warm,
I want to lay down too.
Not on you,
By your side.
While I run around,
You lay there,
Roots deepen, your curious face,
long fingers,
Basking in the sun,
Enjoying the lush rains
Loving songs of birds
Tender caresses, fingers of
-- us
Brushing past your body.
Some day,
You and I
will lay side by side.
Resting quietly together,
your roots and mine.
-Sula
September 23, 2009
It is beatiful, but what is "Sadeh"?
ReplyDeleteBella
Sadeh means garden in Hebrew. For example, Adam and Eve were in the Sadeh Eden.
ReplyDeleteSadeh, in this case is Persian word not Hebrew and poem is written by Hafez - iranian poet.
ReplyDeleteOne of my readers, Gin, wrote an excellent response to my poem, “Your Garden”. Thank you for commenting and taking the time to read my blog posts. Thank you further, for flattering me by noting that the poem I wrote was originally written by Hafez, a poet I have only recently discovered. Furthermore, as I love discussions about language I was intrigued by a small challenge regarding the linguistic origins. There is some confusion about the origin of the word Sadeh which Gin noted to come from the Persian letter. In response to Gin’s comment, I would like to defend my own creative honor as well as clarify a cultural and linguistic sharing between two groups of people who have been needlessly divided for far too much time.
ReplyDeleteYour Garden was a poem I wrote in my journal quietly one night while thinking about my summer at Adamah, a Jewish spiritual retreat and farm in Connecticut where I spent three months working and learning a little bit of Hebrew. When I wrote my poem I was remembering the farm, the plants and their beautiful roots and the sounds of me and my fellow workers; what it was like to work each day and come back to plants that never left the garden. The name of our small farm was Sadeh, a word that is found in the Hebrew Torah and it does actually mean garden. As is often found many words cross from one culture to another. Between Arabic, Farsee and Hebrew, for example, Shalom and Salam are extremely similar even having the same definition. There is no need to argue however that Shalom is Persian and that Salam is Hebrew. Sadeh may well even be in both languages and mean the same thing. But, my dear Gin, I assure you that the original meaning of Sadeh is also in Hebrew and is not a word stolen from Persian. Perhaps we would be better off asking a medieval biblical linguist about such derivations.
Finally, just to comment of the origin of this poem. I am very flattered by Gin’s comment that the poem I wrote was originally written by Hafez - a Persian poet. But when I wrote this poem I had never heard of Hafez. Only now that you have brought this poet to my attention I will certainly take the time to find out about him and am interested in reading more of his poetry if you can suggest some or how I can find a worthwhile translation of this poet’s work.