לפתח הר געש [L'Petach Har Gash] [English translation]

When you read in the newspapers

About an eruption of a volcano in Sicily,

About two entire villages being buried

In Nicaragua, in Chile or in India;

When you read in the newspapers

You ask yourself why?

Why is it that the farmers go back

Just to the slopes that betrayed them?

Why don’t they run from there,

And look for a safer place,

Where they could, finally, live in peace

Once and forever?

After all once every few years

- that’s what exactly is written in the newspapers-

The lava will erupt from the mountain again

And will threaten to bury the entire village.

Why do they insist to return?

Why don’t they abandon the village

Once and forever!?

Sometimes, you meet a tourist,

And he does ask: tell me please, why -

Why do you insist to live

Just at the opening of a volcano?

After all it’s possible to find in the word

Quiet corners, without smoke and noise,

And a steady and good land

Which won’t shake under your feet.

Why is it that you don’t move from here,

And look for safer place,

Where you could, finally, live in peace

Once and forever?

After all once every few years

- that’s what exactly is written in the newspapers-

The lava erupts again from the mountain

And threatens again the entire village.

Why do you so insist,

Why don’t you abandon the village

Once and forever?

And then “suddenly” – you understand them:

The farmer upon the Chimborazo,

And the mother on the Fujisan,

And the child on the Vesuvius.

They too, surely know that in the world are

Corners quieter than the volcano,

And the land more solid than the one,

Where the houses of their ancestors stood.

They too, probably, could move from there,

And look for a safer place,

Where they could, finally, live in peace

Once and forever.

But they do stick to the mountain’s slopes,

And wait perhaps, perhaps tomorrow?

And hope for the day, which will come,

When the mountain will be quiet after it’s rage

And then on the black basalt,

How then will the green grass bloom

Once and forever!

• Artist:Chava Alberstein