Once-born from the womb of your mother;
Twice-born from the grave-meant room;
Thrice-born through the gate at the border
Into the Egyptian noon, the stones and the thorns.
Then born again from the catacomb,
Reader of the dreams of the sevenfold things
In the dominion of the locust and the shining bone,
In the acres of the Pharaohs’ sepulchers
With the sculptured foreheads of their fallen queens,
Joseph, father-far, did heart wring boyhood,
Wish for the Zion of lean synagogues,
The dialect of your father’s pastures?
Joseph in the land of the lion and the linen dead,
Joseph, brother-sold forever,
Benjamin-belovèd ever!

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