You think translation is simple? Mix and match on the app,
and presto, there’s your thought on someone else’s tongue?
You never met my German British father—“Daddy, say BA-th,
not baa-th,” my three-year-old self teaching him
New Jersey’s version of American. When he said G-d
he meant the force that failed, failed, to blast dead the Nazi
beasts; when I spoke the Name, I summoned determination, joy,
intent that forces itself from the grave and mingles with
my breath. He pulled his tarnished menorahThe seeven-branched menorah stood in the Temple, and many present-day synagogues feature the menorah. Titus' arch depicts the Romans' sacking of the Temple and theft of the menorah. A nine-branched menorah called a Hanukkiyah is lit on Hanukkah to symbolize the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days. from
behind my mother’s pottery, dared me to polish it.
Now I polish my own, and install a rainbow of candles.
For me, that rainbow is a promise. I translate love
into courage: Every word a lit match. Every song
a protest, ready to transform.