©2023 Gerry Shepherd
painting
Mabrouk (Private)
Confined to the couch by a bad back,
I watch Israel Educational TV with my son.
There is an Arabic program on
and we slowly learn that the man
at the final fitting for a suit
("Mabrouk, Jamil!"), and the woman
showing her new dress to her best friend
("Mabrouk, Azziza!"), are getting married.
We watch the men come in to shave the groom,
the women warm the bride with dance and song,
the separate dinners with ululations
and more congratulations. Then
the two groups bring the couple to the square.
And when Azziza and Jamil look at each other
slowly, shyly I begin to cry.
I always cry at chasenes.
Mabrouk (Arabic), Congratulations Chasenes (Yiddish), Weddings
Originally appeared in Ignorant armies, Cross-Cultural Publications, 1994
©1994 Karen Alkalay-Gut
All rights reserved
Karen Alkalay-Gut…
…is a poet living in Tel Aviv, professor emerita at Tel Aviv University, and chair of The Israel Association of Writers in English. She has many books of poetry in English and Hebrew and several books of literary criticism. She is also an organizer of 100 Thousand Poets for Change events in Israel.
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