以色列，1969 ——博尔赫斯

我担心以色列暗潮涌动
甜蜜又居心叵测地
聚敛乡愁，如聚敛令人神伤的财宝
在散居的各地数个世纪
在不信者的城市中，在犹太区
在旱原的落阳中，在梦里
那些人的乡愁向往着你——
巴比伦河畔的耶路撒冷

除了遥不可及
除了拯救的承诺
在不断变形的时间里
除了你古老的神书，你的仪式
你跟上帝的形影相吊
你还是什么，以色列？

并非如此。最古老的民族
也最年轻
你打动人们的并非花园和黄金
以及黄金的虚妄
而是劳作的艰辛，以及被围困的土地
无言地，以色列在诉说——
忘掉你是谁吧
忘掉你到过何处
忘掉那个国家的那个你吧
忘掉那里的晨昏
从此不再回望

你将忘记你父辈的语言
学会天堂的语言
你将成为以色列人，成为战士
你将在不毛之地上建国
让它立于沙漠之上
你的兄弟，尽管素未谋面，
将与你并肩工作
只此一事我们可以向你保证——
战斗中将有你一席之地

ISRAEL, 1969 ——By Jorge Luis Borges

I feared that in Israel there might be lurking,
sweetly and insidiously,
the nostalgia gathered like some sad treasure
during the centuries of dispersion
in cities of the unbeliever, in ghettoes,
in the sunset of the steppes - in dreams-
the nostalgia of those who longed for you,
Jerusalem, beside the waters of Babylon.

What else were you, Israel, but that wistfulness,
that will to save
amid the shifting shapes of time
your old magical book, your ceremonies,
your loneliness with God?

Not so. The most ancient of nations
is also the youngest.
You have not tempted men with gardens or gold,
and the emptiness of gold
but with the hard work, beleaguered land,
Without words Israel has told them:
Forget who you are
Forget who you have been
Forget the man you were in those countries
which gave you their mornings and evenings
and to which you must not look back in yearning.

You will forget your father's tongue
and learn the tongue of Paradise.
You shall be an Israeli, a soldier,
You shall build a country on wasteland,
making it rise out of deserts
Your brother, whose face you've never seen
will work by your side.
One thing only we promise you-
your place in the battle.