Chaim Semiatitski (Khayim Semiatitsky)
Two gals sitting on a mossy stone
gab about God, grass, and the marvel of horseradish root
which in winter hides with the worm deep in the ground
until it detects the thunder’s sound.
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.
-
-
From the Cycle: Who Knows From Whence My Poem
Chaim Semiatitski (Khayim Semiatitsky)
The linden shelters the twilight
like a leaf among its branches,
its flower enfolding the night in a bud
till dawn
when it unfurls like an almsgiver’s hand.
In the drop of dew hanging suspended
from the grass like an eye,
the evening slumbers with the stars.
And I cast a silver fishing rod
into the river of dusk
to capture my star laying on a water-floret;
or, come the night, I rouse my father’s soul
which had departed into it with a smile.Translated by Miri Koral
(more…) -
It’s This Night
Chaim Semiatitski (Khayim Semiatitsky)
It’s this night and this book and this poem I read,
while being birthed, this night had heard my first screamyet each day is again composed anew
(more…)
and I sit by the lanterns’ glow and peruse. -
Golden Shoes
Alter Kacyzne (Alter-Sholem Katsizne)
The sun shone brightly in a festive way:
(more…)
today is the king of Chelm’s birthday.
He observes from the terrace on high
if the folk with the new gift are drawing nigh.
Here they come, here they come, the shoes made of gold
forged of real ducats, ready to behold!
The folk crafted this golden footwear
for the king in pride and joy to wear.
Whosoever encounters the king in passing
would clear the way as was certainly fitting. -
About Alter Kacyzne (Alter-Sholem Katsizne)
Alter-Sholem Kacyzne (Katsizne) (1885-1941) was born in Vilnius (Vilno) to a working-class family. Yiddish was his mameloshen or mother-tongue, but he taught himself Hebrew, Russian, German, Polish, and French. At age 14, he went to work in his uncle’s photography studio in Dnipro (Ekatrinoslav). He became a professional photographer, and documented Jewish life in Poland, Palestine, and North Africa. Many of his striking photographs are available online.
Kacyzne is well known for his photography, literary works and plays, but lesser so for his poetry. He founded his own Yiddish literary journals, and also contributed to the Yiddish Forward, and a number of periodicals with Communist leanings including Literarishe Tribune, Der Fraynd, and Literatur.
He lived in Dnipro, and later Warsaw where he became a good friend of Y L Perets. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he fled to Lviv (Lemberg), and as the Nazi armies advanced, fled further east to Ternipol, where he was tortured to death by Ukranian collaborators in July 1941.
Sources:
-
From My Childhood
Hinde Nayman
Little things snowy white,
(more…)
round as tiny stars
and sweet as sweet can be,
like saccharine pearls for tea. -
To a little boy in a Jewish village
Moyshe Shimel (Maurycy Szymel)
Don’t cry little boy, wipe away your tears, it will soon be good.
We will heal the wounds that drip with blood.We stand alone in this wide world against the sun that sets
(more…)
Alone, alone with our pain and our poverty -
Autumn
Hersh Veber
Between tree and tree exists the sky,
(more…)
between sky and sky – stars
(everything taking form must ignite and be extinguished…)
leading up to houses along milky roads.
Here – a reminder, there – the stone’s blue glow. -
Visiting my Mama
M Goldshteyn
– For so long have my eyes been seeking,
(more…)
awaiting some letter of yours, my son –
in the nights my heart was wakeful
and quaking like a leaf in the wind. -
Evening Stroll
The sky’s rouge
(more…)
drew back
beneath their steps
overgrown with the sidewalks,
mingled with the dust of asphalts.
They entered the grey.