A Raindrop Observed

by Yehudit Ben-Zvi Heller
     translated by Agha Shahid Ali with the poet

How a raindrop fallen from the roof
becomes light all by itself
though it is one with the next drop about to fall
and one with the drops it has joined on the window
so it repeats itself thus
and becomes a needle
threading the frozen drops on the pane
into a necklace of evaporating crystal beads

How a raindrop becomes a road
branching off on the window
into transparent trails flowing frozen

till the sun breaks