טויטע וועגן
Dead Roads
Work 36 of 440
Page 44. 'Toyte vegn' (Dead Roads) expresses the prisoners' complete isolation: they long for anyone — even someone to be frightened, even someone to throw a stick at them — but the wildly overgrown roads are dead, no one comes. 'Nokhanand' (One After Another) depicts three hundred prisoners marching for two days, the sun setting as tired as they are, but the punishing hand keeps driving them on, not allowing them to rest in the sunset or kiss the footsteps of night.
טויטע וועגן
וואָלט כאָטש ווער געקומען
אונדז אַנטקעגן
זאָגן: „פֿריד צו אײַך
Toyte vegn
Volt khotsh ver gekumen
undz antkegn
zogn: „Frid tsu aykh
Dead Roads
If only someone would come
to meet us
to say: "Peace to you"
just by the way.
Just to see a shadow
from someone
say: "Peace to you"
and be ashamed.
If only someone before us
would be startled,
hurl into our faces
a stick.
No one comes, no one comes
to meet us —
fields — wildly overgrown
dead roads.
One After Another
Fields — spread out in length and breadth,
the sun, as tired as all of us, sets,
it lets itself down so still, so soft,
bent, kneeling before the coming night.
We have walked two days already, three hundred in number,
we have, who knows when, sinned once,
we have forgotten the sin long ago,
and yearn also to rest in the sunset.
But it doesn't stop beating, the punishing hand,
it drives us to walk on and on, one after another,
and won't let us fall with lips parched
to kiss the footsteps of the coming night.
Page 44. 'Toyte vegn' (Dead Roads) expresses the prisoners' complete isolation: they long for anyone — even someone to be frightened, even someone to throw a stick at them — but the wildly overgrown roads are dead, no one comes. 'Nokhanand' (One After Another) depicts three hundred prisoners marching for two days, the sun setting as tired as they are, but the punishing hand keeps driving them on, not allowing them to rest in the sunset or kiss the footsteps of night.
← / → previous & next poem·1–4 toggle columns·hover a line to align all versions