Raymond Carver’s “Your Dog Dies” is a poem that has kept coming back to me since the war began here. Pain, loss and sorrow are a promising launchpad for making art. But is the tradeoff one that an artist – who is also a human – must accept? After the past two years, I’d be willing to rip up every story I’ve ever written in return for a less bloody world.
As requested by readers, my narration of the poem in English is followed by a bonus recording. So if you hear me talking to you in a weird language after the story ends, I’d like to assure you that I’m not mumbling a spell to conjure up the spirit of Lilith or trying to hypnotize you into joining the Mossad. It’s just me reading the poem in Hebrew.
Intro translated by Jessica Cohen
“Your Dog Dies” was translated to Hebrew by Uzi Weil