National Library of Israel.
"The Undertaking" by Louise Glück
The darkness lifts, imagine, in your lifetime.
There you are - cased in clean bark you drift
through weaving rushes, fields flooded with cotton.
You are free. The river films with lilies,
shrubs appear, shoots thicken into palm. And now
all fear gives way: the light
looks after you, you feel the waves' goodwill
as arms widen over the water; Love
the key is turned. Extend yourself -
it is the Nile, the sun is shining,
everywhere you turn is luck.
Congratulation to Jewish-American poet Louise Elizabeth Glück, who was announced today as the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2020!
Mazel Tov!
"The Undertaking" appeared in her 1975 collection, "The House on Marshland". You can find many works by Louise Glück at the National Library of Israel, here:
https://tinyurl.com/y4t6mlac
Photo: Louise Glück in 1977.
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