As all the survivors of the ark burst ashore
in a happy pandemonium
chattering, roaring, howling for prey
lowing to be fruitful and multiply
while above their heads the rainbow hinted
that there would be no end again--the end came
for the fish without cares who lived
off the catastrophe like slippery swindlers:
now on the face of the stiffening earth
the writhing fins were stranded
and with gaping mouths they drowned in the air.
Translated from the Hebrew by Leon Wieseltier
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