Shebarim / Evven

I do not live;

I cannot die;

I am the smallest pebble

and the largest boulder;

I am emotionless

but not always cold;

The rain falls;

I feel no drops;

The sun shines,

and I hold no heat;

Flowers flourish,

they later die;

I do not grow,

but I never expire;

Time always surrounds me,

but I stand outside of it;

I have been in a thousand wars,

but I have never fought;

Nothing can I do,

But many uses have I had;

I do not welcome people,

yet I do not turn them away;

What makes them happy,

I feel no pleasure;

What makes them sad,

I feel no sympathy;

But they speak to me anyway,

knowing that I feel not;

I do not hear,

but I can listen;

I do not talk,

but I can speak;

I cannot touch,

but I can be felt;

My future looks gray,

but the sky remains blue

Neither of these has changed;

Never will it differ;

But though I feel not,

All is exactly as it was meant to be.

On writing "Shebarim / Evven"

The poem is a Hebrew form called “parallelismus membrorum,” or “parallel members.” Each line is an extension, contradiction or complement of the previous one. The form puts the poem as a sort of riddle, the answer to which is clearly “stone.” The word “evven” is Hebrew for “stone,” and “shebarim” means “to break in pieces.” Breaking a stone in pieces can remind of a rock quarry. It can also mean “break into pieces” as in breaking something down into individual parts (like the different characteristics of stone, in this case).