More Sutzkever

Two Poems

Photo by Danny De Vylder on Unsplash

I paused one day to translate two more Sutzkever poems just because… they sing. Indeed, both came to me first in song, music first. Then I read the lyrics, in Yiddish, and in several translations. They seemed unnecessarily wordy for Sutzkever, and I tried my own.

Every translation of a text serves as a close reading, and each reading offers a way to understand the original, which is to say multiple readings provide more insights, always a blessing. Here then are my translations of “Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern” and “Shpielzayg,” both well-known in Israel, I think. They might even be popular songs.

—

Unter Dayne Vayse Stern

Under your white stars

stretch your white hand toward me.

My words are tears

seeking respite in your white arms.

See, in my cellar view

the stars spark in dark.

I have no corner here

from where to return the favor.

And yet I want to entrust you with my work,

faithful God, because I get fired up,

and in fire—my days.

I run higher, over houses, roofs,

searching, asking, where are you, where?

Strange stairs & courtyards

chase me, ache me.

A busted string, I hang limp

& sing:

Under your white stars

stretch your white hand toward me.

My words are tears

seeking respite in your white arms.

Shpielzayg

Your playthings, child, hold them dear,

your playthings, smaller than you.

Nights, when the fire goes out

tuck them in with stars & trees.

Let your golden pony graze

sweet grass in the shrouded field.

And dress the little boy in boots

when the sharp sea blows.

And your Layele, dress her in a panama hat,

put a little bell in her hand.

Because none of them have mothers,

they cry to God at the wall.

Love them well, your little princesses.

I recall a day—as in wind—

of seven street corners full of Layeles,

& the city without a child.