Parole dal mondo

When Elohim through Moses

When Elohim through Moses
(Deu 7.1-6)

When Elohim through Moses charged
his chosen Volk to cross the river
and take the promised land, he bade
them utterly destroy those peoples
and their sacred sites and objects:
‘Make no agreement; be merciless;
on no account allow your sons
to wed their daughters. For,’ He said,
‘you are a people holy to me’.

Be glad the Israelites could not
maintain the cruelty they were bidden.
Well it was for Canaanite
and Philistine the chosen people
had no stomach to sustain
that ancient ethnic cleansing. Wrathful
waxed their God they disobeyed;
or was He jealous that His people
could outshine their Lord in kindness? —
or simply jealous of those lads
who’d hitch with Canaan’s lovely daughters?

L'autore

Murray Alfredson

Murray Alfredson è un ex-bibliotecario, docente e socio buddista nel Multi-Faith Chaplaincy alla Flinders University, in Australia. Ha pubblicato saggi sulla meditazione buddista, sulle relazioni e le poetiche inter-religiose, poesie e traduzioni di poesia su riviste e antologie in Australia, Stati Uniti, Regno Unito, Svezia, Canada, e due raccolte, Nectar & Light in New Poets, 12, Adelaide: Friendly Street Poets e Wakefield Press, 2007; e The gleaming clouds, Brisbane, Interactive press, 2013.
È redattore di Ashvamegh, una rivista letteraria pubblicata a New Delhi, e co-curatore della quarantesima antologia annuale dei Friendly Street Poets: Many eyes, many voices, Adelaide, 2016.
Ha vinto l’High Beam Award per la poesia 2004, il Poetry Unhinged Multicultural Poetry Prize 2006, il premio Friendly Street Poets Political Poetry 2009, ed è stato nominato due volte per il premio Pushcart, nel 2009 e nel 2012.
Vive nella penisola di Fleurieu vicino al Golfo di St Vincent nell’ Australia del sud.

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