Rachel Zolf’s Neighbour Procedure
I tried as could as possible to expose some of the implied issues that Zolf hints and are left open to the readers during her subjunctive poem, “a priori,” pages 8-11. My creative response provides the complements which are the main clauses of the if-clauses in these pages. I searched the political, historical, cultural and social issues that Zolf tries to raise and sometimes evoke through her bunch of the if-clauses and completed them, hinting to some original stories as well.
“Tariq’s Half Priori”
If the Sabbath is a form of constraint, fishing is allowable on Sunday and the other week’s days.
If jihād is the first word learned, people would agree on its interpretation.
If Elie Wiesel is the Holocaust, he would be a president of Israel.
If one must expropriate gently, the looted may resist fiercely.
If messianism licks at the edges of thought, nothing impedes the destructive components.
If the truth does not lie in silence, the lie does not lie in sound.
If naf is self and brother, a fan is like a self’s brother.
If the space between two words can be bridged, the new phrases will lose the antonym connotations.
If moderate physical pressure is acceptable, any little psychological pressure is inadmissible.
If the primary target is the witness, the judge is a member in the crime.
If epistemological mastery is an uncloseable wound, mythological and metaphysical grip cannot heal the wound.
If bittahon was trust in God now military security, it is time to place his trust in God’s lovingkindness again.
If there is horror at the heart of divinity, it will strengthen delight in the heart of deviltry.
If the body goes off near the Sbarro pizzeria, why did she get out of the prison?
If the apocalyptic sting is gone from Hebrew, then it will not affect the pinched.
If the first stage is not knowing at all, the final stage is a complete chaos.
If this state is the golden calf, Moses would painstakingly think before smashing it.
If ingathering means expulsion, expulsion means explosion.
If catastrophe becomes a passion, humanity’s peace becomes at stake.
If we shoot and weep, this is the social and political hypocrisy in its perfect form.
If Israel is not in Israel, Palestine is Palestine.
If the treasure house of well-worn terms is laden with explosives, poverty and recession will sweep the state away.
If ha’apalah was catastrophic breakthrough now illegal immigration, was “MacDonald White Paper” serious?
If the bodies of the exploding martyrs smell of musk, another source is the musk deer’s glandular secretions.
If every breath of fresh air is a border, overloaded constraints are put on people’s breaths.
If the state no longer decides who lives or dies, defenseless individuals cannot determine that too.
If some are eternally innocent and good, others may be eternally guilty and bad.
If a key is an archival artifact, the lock resists its new rusty nature.
If the planes return safely, the hijackers must be failed in their missions.
If they are all enthusiasm, their lives won’t become inferno.
If you are Hamas, then you are “enthusiasm”.
If one is Israel, he cannot be Palestine.
If cruel history repeats itself as its own cure, the side effects of the expired cure will be active again.
If it happens inside the Sbarro pizzeria, how did she get out of the prison?
If there is invasion of the order of the border, the border will forever experience disorder.
If the animal is discomforted during slaughter, the slaughterer feels the same after the slaughter.
If the band of the blind plays and refreshments served, the deaf spectators would not enjoy the show.
If the third stage is but what can be done, the first and second stages failed for one part.
If shahīd is martyr and witness, then martyr means a witness.
If preventative is energetic liquidation, can the weak survive in the struggle!
If some are a community of fate, the community resides in their faith.
If we will and it is a fairy tale, Scheherazade would quit narration.
If Sbarro, what?
I really like your creative interpretation, especially the symmetry you give lines:
“If the truth does not lie in silence, the lie does not lie in sound.
If naf is self and brother, a fan is like a self’s brother.”
I was fascinated by the tension of the unexplained “ifs” in Zolf’s poem. How did it feel to resolve some of that tension?
Jed, it is very interesting that you noticed and feel such tension. Actually, that requires much effort. To create the symmetry, and to respond to the tension in the poem, I searched every line in “a priori” and discovered that Zolf hints on some political, historical, or religious events. Something related to the Israeli and to the Palestinians. Every line creates tension in which it requires the readers to investigate the event that every if-clause hides. I discovered that Zolf is familiar with Holy Quran and The Old Testament. And some of her if-clauses imply verses from the two books. For example, the sentence: “If the Sabbath is a form of constraint,” Quran mentions that Sabbath is a day when Jews were prevented from fishing, and God tested their faith through the availability of large amounts of fish only on that day. The Old Testament mentions that The Jewish Sabbath is a day of rest and spiritual enrichment, not for fishing.
Another historical, not religious, event resides in the if-clause: “If the body goes off near the Sbarro pizzeria,” Zolf wants readers to know Sbarro Restaurant Suicide Bombing and how the real reasons behind that incident led to what happened. In such way, I did my best to resolve the tension through looking for events that she implies in her lines.