Dinah

[Verse 1]

Dina Jeffries daughter of the merchant Sholkom

reads by actress Alla Chovzhik

prologue

She is under water

Her movements are disorderly clumsy and slow

Her long hair swirls over her head in a whirl

Enchanted by the golden light penetrating through the water's thickness

[Verse 2]

water's thickness she pushes herself away with her feet

and with her whole body makes a jerk upwards

following the air bubbles from her breath which rush to the surface

The flat disk of the Sun splits scattering sparkling fragments everywhere

She throws her head grabs the air with her mouth sees her sister's face

Seconds pass

[Verse 3]

Enchanted by the blur of this world

she raises her hand to wave

She wants to scream but the water covers her head again

She rambles in the river among the deafening roar which echoes across the sides

She needs to call for help but she is unable to make a sound

She desperately wants to swallow the air but she knows that nothing will work

[Verse 4]

She tries to swim and is completely exhausted

In the glow of the Sun above her head she blinks

She drowns

She plunges deeper and deeper into the dark cold river

And the less light is left the faster she moves down

[Verse 5]

She tries to turn around swim up as if climbing up a water staircase

but the flow is too strong and her feet fall into the void

A memory of the house is carried through her mind's eye

house is carried through her mind's eye

The body is filled with heaviness

The river deprives her of any desire to fight

It seems to her as if she is soaring but no she is not soaring she is drowning