An Arab Shepherd is Searching for His Goat on Mount Zion

    By Yehunda Amichai

     

    An Arab shepherd is searching for his goat on Mount Zion

    And on the opposite hill I am searching for my little boy.

    An Arab shepherd and a Jewish father

    Both in their temporary failure.

    Our two voices met above

    The Sultan's Pool in the valley between us.

    Neither of us wants the boy or the goat

    To get caught in the wheels

    Of the "Had Gadya" machine.



    Afterward we found them among the bushes,

    And our voices came back inside us

    Laughing and crying.



    Searching for a goat or for a child has always been

    The beginning of a new religion in these mountains.



    http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-arab-shepherd-is-searching-for-his-goat-on-mo/

     

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