The Song Remains
דאָס ליד איז געבליבן
Welcome to our collection of Yiddish poems with English translations from Nazi German occupied Poland. We’ll be publishing one new poem per week into 2027, so be sure to subscribe to get free weekly updates.
Who is this he who is following us close
in your every step there?
Through every crack in a mouse hole
you feel his cold watching stare…
His look is ice cold
with mustache sticky and damp
with paws slippery with evil
crept up on your skin
Summer dear, you come home so brown so hot
You fall on me breathing heavy: what heat!
And I write about fjords – watery inlets
And believe my song will protect me
From the noisy outdoors, the big back yard
Where people are shouting noisily all day: I buy and I sell
1.
The night – a hungry dark dog –
has licked the red blood of the west
and quietly laid down on the earth
Three crows stand on my roof and curse;
one pecks at my heart,
the heart has bloodied my way
now dogs lick at my ways
When the boys arrive
Together with the girls
Hearts get lit
And faces glow in flame
They will play in love
Couples stroll together
The little town is blooming
A new world is here
Hersh Danilewicz / Danilevitsh (1882-1941) was born in the countryside of Lipno (Lipne), and then moved to Warsaw. Hershele, as he was known by the people of Warsaw, was encouraged to write as a youth by Y. L. Peretz. He was one of the founders of the Łódź Yiddish Literary Group. He wrote children’s songs, humorous poems, and translations from Polish and Russian to Yiddish. His songs were so popular they were thought to be folk songs. He died of hunger with his wife and two children in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941. Katsenelson, writing under the pen name of Khayim Goldberg in his poem Di Khronik fun Hershele’s Toit (“The Chronicle of Hershele’s Death”) reports that Hershele left a thousand poems.
(more…)Tell me Bobe dearest wise
Tell me Beauty Dear
How this little rose red cherry
came onto my cheek right here
Nurses have blue eyes
like the color of late spring sky
The dazzle of their white dresses
cuts through the heavy strange air
on their lips greets a gentle motherly smile
I had a sweet dream
still feel it so well, peace unfurled
peace has arrived peace is here
peace in the whole wide world
It is not now important what anyone says
the grass is beautiful and sweet is the joy
of singing.