Each of Us Has a Name

Each of us has a name,
given to us by God,
and given to us by our father
and mother.
Each of us has a name,
given to us by our stature
and our way of smiling,
and given to us by our clothes.
Each of us has a name,
given to us by the mountains,
and given to us by our walls.
Each of us has a name,
given to us by the planets,
and given to us by our neighbors.
Each of us has a name,
given to us by our sins,
and given to us by our longing.
Each of us has a name,
given to us by our enemies,
and given to us by our love.
Each of us has a name,
given to us by our fast days,
and given to us by our craft.
Each of us has a name,
given to us by the seasons of the year,
and given to us by our blindness.
Each of us has a name,
given to us by the sea,
and given to us by our death.

Zelda, the poet, a hasidic Jew horn in Chernigov, Ukraine in 1914, immigrated to Jerusalem in 1926 and died in 1984. Her full name was Zelda Schneurson Mishkowsky. She went only by her first name, which was not an uncommon practice from female poets in Israel at the time. The poem above is adapted from the Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse, edited and translated by T. Carmi.