קינה לארץ אהובה | Lamentation for a Beloved Land

O How your dwellings have been turned into ruins,
Your people become exiles in their own land?
O Betrayed land, your sons betrayed you,
They put their desires before all else,
They sealed your fate with their very tongues,
They abandoned you in their hearts, lost in their ways.

O How your Kibbutzim were destroyed, cities made desolate,
Your people dead, your fields wasting away.
Furrows ravaged, become fields of horror,
All eyes devastated, dried out of tears.

Your sons, daughters butchered undefended,
Fair maidens hauled into captivity.
And the plotters standing before them
Whispering, rustling, and the land was silent

Woe unto you, you cowards,
Sitting carelessly in your cushioned chairs,
Entrusted with the lives of beloved captives
While mothers and fathers are wrapped in their grief.

We will yet return and rebuild you, the soil of our homeland
We will yet return and sing in your fields a joyous song
Your sons will yet return to love and forgive
Your daughters will yet return to complete the thankful song
For neighbors and fellows who had become our enemies,
When our eyes will see peace between us.

And we will cast a prayer together for borders of tranquility,
For becoming good neighbors, for leaders with humility
That we will respect each other, brothers and sisters
When you will sprout again, O land, grain and wheat.

*This Lamentation will appear in ‘Dirshuni: Women’s Midrash’, Vol. 2.