The Song Remains – דאָס ליד איז געבליבן

The Song Remains

People of the Warsaw Ghetto merged with a map of the Nazi occupation of Poland

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.

  • Yakov Shudrikh

    The wind suddenly threw open the door
    and swept in a heap of leaves.
    Sniffed, tugged at the curtain,
    touched everything, stroked it with its breath,
    and swiftly made its exit.

    (more…)

  • Ber Shnaper

    Until the night comes
    a day of living is luminous, vast and long —
    like the immense yearning to which I’ve succumbed!

    (more…)

  • Yisroel Shtern

              Night senses this in sleep:

    the streets cease to lament
    their desolation;
    a lad sings.

    (more…)

  • Yisroel Shtern

    A little orphan in tattered clothes laughs,
    takes fright and races through streets and alleyways.

    He stole something.
    So he’s being chased.

    (more…)

  • Yisroel Shtern

    The world passes through their eyes
    as summer passes through fields.
    Just as the earth is taut with becoming,
    in their word, progress is primed.

    (more…)

  • Yisroel Shtern

    I’m not envious of anyone,
    save the song of the scythe
    eventide in the countryside…

    I’m not envious of anyone,
    save the fathomless music
    of the silence
    that chases the path,
    the robust and wending path
    of the roots
    of a tree.

    (more…)

  • Yisroel Shtern

    Though Springtime, there was rain and snow,
    and above the columns of night
    grief clambered like a cat and terrorized all the roads.
    I sat alone, leafing through an old holy book.

    (more…)

  • Yisroel Shtern (1894-1942) was born in Ostrołęka (Ostrolenke), educated in yeshivas, and became a follower of the Mussar movement. After being imprisoned during the First World War, he lived in Warsaw, where he ultimately perished in the Ghetto in 1942. He published poems in many literary journals, and became known as one of the most important Yiddish poets in the period between the two world wars. Like so many others, his unpublished work was lost when the Ghetto was destroyed.

    Sources:

  • Chaim Semiatitski (Khayim Semiatitsky)

    On the street
    the trodden snow lies.
    Its countenance is pale
    and it cries.

    So I’ll invite the snow
    into my abode
    to be a guest of mine.

    Who’d dare tread
    with muddied boots
    upon a guest of mine?

    Translated by Miri Koral

    (more…)

  • Yakov Shudrikh

    How everything here has changed, the color transformed.
    How lovely my city is, all spiffed up and adorned.
    The red flags flutter down nearly to the ground
    and for me every weekday is cause for celebration.

    (more…)