Haim, Tfilin, Smá

5 éve rakok Tfilint – Five years of my Tefillin

magyarul

Tekerem a karomra
Felteszem a fejemre
Illesztem a tarkómra
Leülök a helyemre
Imám szól figyelemmel
Naponta minden reggel

Barázdákat szánt a tfilin szíja,
Mindig pont hét, sosincs híja.
És fejemen , mint harmadik szem.
Pont öt éve, hogy reggel teszem.

Akár búsan, akár vidáman,
Mondom, mi van az imában.
Részévé vált életemnek,
A napok így jönnek és mennek.

Tizenhárom év, a bár micva kora,
Indul a tfilin-rakás végtelen sora.
És az én korom? Nekem már nyolc!
Hogy nem tizen, hanem hatvannyolc.

in English

With smile on my face – how time is stretched,
Thinking about life: am I cursed or blessed?
As today I celebrate the fifth anniversary
Of my own tefillin, sent from somewhere to Hungary.

The new walls of Vasvári look down with a smile
As I take my place where I pray since a while
I’m saying thanks for all the help I have received,
What a journey! Unbelievable! But true, indeed.

The tefillin every day wrapped around my head,
And my arm, when I’m happy or feel down and sad
And my father and his ancestors… What they think of me?
I wish they could be here to celebrate and to see.

As I join the minjan or a bigger crowd
Somehow hesitating, but a bit proud
To be part of this ancient law and tradition,
That survived ages and every condition.

Is this day a symbol of more to come?
So the tefillin’s sphere can become
A sacred space where I can be at peace,
And find the strength to face life with ease.

Does my inner self feel joy and gratitude
For the blessings of this sacred mood?
Looking at the path to this time and place,
Leading me through years of my tefillin with grace.

I have laid tefillin more than fifteen hundred times
And admired on my arm the stripes’ lines.
If the old man as a bar mitzvah boy can be seen
I am not sixty-eight but just merely eighteen.