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.
1
Not for nothing do childish cries
sound against my blue windows all night.
In the morning a mother tossed her 6-day old child
on to the corner of Karmelicka Street
Like a wet and broken cradle
the child lay on the corner at the neck of the street.
Bearded men came
well dressed women
and even the day that bent over
like a blond waiter
with a gilded tray
with white napkins in hand
and distributed the joy of July
Borekh Olitzki (1907-1941) born in Turzysk (Trisk / Turiis’k), Volhynia, the middle brother in a literary family. Borekh was educated in a kheder (religious school). He lost his father during the First World War, and moved to Ratno (Ratne) where he lived with an uncle. He taught throughout Volhynia, and later in Łódź and Warsaw where he was beloved by his students and regarded as a one of the more talented poets of the new generation of Jewish writers.
Due to passport difficulties he was forced to live in Lachowicze (Lekhovitsh / Lyakhovichi) where he was killed when the Nazis occupied the town on 24 June 1941.
A single collection of his poems was published after his death at the initiative of his brother Leyb, titled Mayn blut is oysgemisht (My Blood Is Mixed, 1951)
(more…)From Old-fashioned Themes
Every day at early morning –
When I open the door to my day
I believe:
From today on I start to live
Ber Shnaper (1906-1939) was born in Lwów (Lviv / Lvov / Lemberg), the son of a poor cobbler. He studied at the Vienna Hebrew Teachers Seminary. He wrote for a large number of periodicals, and also produced several monographs. Not much is known about his life.
His poetry volume Bloe Verter is available online.
Sources:
Today my life came to an end,
Ekh! To hell with such a life as I am living!
I saw blue children, little hands outstretched
begging something to be given…
1.
Right now – stream your brightest rays
melt brightness into my eyes
and pull me into white light
swimming into a light stream
Shmuel Vulman (1896-1941) was born in Kałuszyn, near Warsaw into a poor Hassidic family. He moved to Warsaw in 1917, and became active in the left Labour Zionists. He published poetry in many Yiddish journals, wrote a number of popular books, and also translated works from other languages into Yiddish.
When the Nazis invaded Poland, he escaped to Białystok which was under Soviet rule, and was persecuted for his prior critical attitude toward Bolshevism. When the Nazis invaded Russia, he moved to Kremenits (in modern Ukraine), where he was killed by the Nazis along with fellow writers Sh. Zaromb and Yerakhmiel Nayberg.
Vulman also published under the names: Y.-Sh. Prager, Sh.-Z. Vulf, L. (Leyzer) Felzner, Sh. V. Man, A. Masholnu, Sh. V., and Shin-vov, among others.
(more…)Hot nights
have drunk
our stammering
Naked we
rolled around on roses
Millions of songs
died then
Ber Horovits (1895-1942) was born in the rural village of Majdan, in the Carpathian Mountains of eastern Galicia. He received a traditional Jewish education at home, and also studied at a Ukrainian primary school, and graduated from the Polish gymnasium in Stanisławów.
He fought for the imperial Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War, and later studied medicine in Vienna. He was associated with a group of Yiddish authors in Vienna including Avrom Moyshe Fuks, Melech Ravitch, and Moyshe Zilburg.
He later moved to Kraków, where he translated and adapted plays for the Krakover Yidish Teater, and ultimately back to Stanisławów.
According to Melech Ravitch, “Ber Horowitz is one of the powerful Jewish poets. He sings loudly. His poetry is noisy, even the quiet tenor of his lyrics is noisy … He uses a language that is semi-gentile, Judeo-Slavic pidgin Yiddish. He is a splendid representative and this alone has a bit of a stir for him: What am I?”
He was also a gifted artist.
He was murdered by the Nazis at the age of forty-seven. According to the oral testimony of three Jewish survivors, he died on Hoshana Rabbah, 1942, with 9,000 Jews in Stanislawów. According to another source, he was murdered by local peasants in his birthplace of Majdan.
(more…)Close your doors, lock all up
mad dogs are howling in this dark city
Mad dogs are howling in this dark city
waking little children – making them cry
Those who long have been saddened
will even sadder be