MY MOTHER BAKED THE WHOLE WORLD FOR ME by Yehuda Amichai | Translated by Margalit Benaya

"I enclose longings within me like air/ Pockets in a loaf of bread."

MY MOTHER BAKED THE WHOLE WORLD FOR ME
by Yehuda Amichai 

My mother baked the whole world for me
In little sweet cakes.
My love filled my window
With raisins of stars.
I enclose longings within me like air
Pockets in a loaf of bread.
Outside I am smooth and quiet and brown.
The world loves me.
But my hair is sad like the reeds in a drying marsh –
All birds of rare and beautiful plumage
Fly from me.

Previously Published in Modern Poetry in Translation. Translated by Margalit Benaya.