Poem 7 - Black Sin (Untitled)
Permit me yet to live my entire life kneeling at your feet
Perhaps then you will forgive me my black sin.
Loz mikh lign kniendik far dir mayn gants lebn
Efsher vestu mir mayn shvarts zind fargebn.
Poem 8 - The Garden (Untitled)*
I walked about the garden
At my feet were yellow leaves.
I bowed down to the earth
And trembling stood up yet again
And disgusted and afraid
Immediately I threw out--
Wet and slippery leaves.
I walked about the garden
At my feet were yellow leaves,
They asked of me: Mercy! Mercy!
I trampled them, I trampled them.
Kh’bin in gortn umgegangen
Mir tsufusns--bleter gele.
Kh’hob zikh tsu der erd geboygn
Mit a tsiter ufgehoybn
Un mit shrekn un mit ekl
Hob ikh glaykh avekgevorfn--
Glitshik-nase bleter.
Kh’bin in gortn umgegangen
Mir tsufusns--bleter gele.
Zey hobn gebetn: derbarmung! Derbarmung!
Ikh hob zey dertrotn, dertrotn.
By Moyshe Varshe
Translated by Corbin Allardice
*- Here Varshe puns on the dual meaning of bleter: pages and leaves. This double sense is, of course, also active in English, but it's more common, more obvious, in Yiddish.
Comments