We are all reeling. Confronted with such unthinkable things, we crave ways to ground ourselves in our own humanity. Yiddish culture — no stranger to devastation and grief — has long known that while poetry does not give us answers, it can offer us ways of asking questions, and ways to speak when confronted by the unspeakable. For your contemplation, I will simply leave you this poem by one of Yiddish literature’s great lyric poets, Dovid Hofshteyn (1889-1952), and its vision of the bloody civil wars that broke out in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Hofshteyn’s words, drenched in anger and agony, are yet a tether to the humane.
Ven s’kritsn tseyn tsunóyfgeprést,
ven s’blitsn fúnken fun di oygn,
ver ken mir eytsn, mestn,
ver ken mikh fregn:
hóstu ópgevóygn?
Ikh veys nor eyns,
un ot dos eyns nor ken ikh tseyln:
s’iz heys
dos harts,
es traybt
dos blut,
es glit
fun vey,
es blit
fun mut,
un vey un mut itst ken ikh nit tsetéyln!
In háyzerkráyz fartríbn,
mit dérner shtólene fartsámt,
vos iz mir nokh farblíbn?
Es flamt un flamt
mayn bleykh gezíkht,
un trern shvére
farbítern di klóre likht
fun mayne bénkendike oygn…
In níder fun farnákhtn,
in shtaygn fun frimórgns,
in blutn hélishe
mayn óysveg iz farbórgn!
Ven háyzer shtéyen
in flam fun véy-geshréyen,
ven knoyln groyl zikh káyklen íber gasn,
ver ken mir heysn vartn?
Ver ken farvérn hasn?…
*
When clenched teeth grind,
When eyes shoot sparks,
Who can advise me, gauge me?
Who can ask me:
“Have you weighed it?”
I know but one thing,
And that one thing alone can I count:
My heart
Is hot,
My blood
Surges,
It burns
With pain,
It blooms
With courage,
And now I cannot sunder pain from courage.
Driven into the circle of houses,
Hedged by thorns of steel,
What is left for me?
My pale face
Burns and flushes,
Heavy tears
Embitter the clear light
Of my longing eyes…
In the lowering of evenings,
In the rising of dawns,
In the hellish loss of blood
My way out is hidden.
When the houses stand
In the flame of screams of pain,
When skeins of horror roll down the lanes,
Who can tell me to wait?
Who can forbid me to hate?