אין דער נאַכט אין מיטן
In the middle of the night
Work 5 of 440
Page 13. This page continues 'In a zaydn hemdl' and contains the complete poem 'Yinglvayz' (Childhood/As a Boy). 'Yinglvayz' is a crucial autobiographical poem revealing Leivick's early sense of prophetic calling — even as a child he felt set apart, destined to witness and proclaim 'something great' born from suffering. This messianic consciousness pervades much of his later work, including 'The Golem.'
אין דער נאַכט אין מיטן
טוט אים קײנער וויגן —
ווײנט דאָס קינד און שרעקט זיך
און עס ווערט אַנטשוויגן.
שלאָפֿט די פֿרעמדע מוטער
פֿון דעם קינד פֿון ווײַטן:
„גאַנצע נעכט איך וויג אים
In der nakht in mitn
tut im keyner vign —
veynt dos kind un shrekt zikh
un es vert antshvign.
Shloft di fremde muter
fun dem kind fun vaytn:
"Gantse nekht ikh vig im" —
rimt zi zikh far laytn.
Nor dos kind es vakst zikh,
hert shoyn oyf tsu zoygn,
likhtiker un klorer
vern zayne oygn.
Vintsht im yeder gern
glik un lange yorn —
in a zaydn hemdl
iz dos kind geboyrn.
Yinglvayz
Nokh yinglvayz, ven ale kinder haltn zikh in shpiln,
hob ikh mikh far a groysn shoyn gehaltn,
gelebt mit zikh aleyn, mit mentshn fun dervaytn
azoy vi epes vos fun alemen bahaltn.
Ikh hob shoyn dan gezen, vi mentshn laydn-shvaygn —
hob ikh dem shvaygn zeyern in zikh farnumen,
un epes forgeshtelt zikh vayt, tsu vayser elter,
epes groyses, vunderlekhs vet fun laydn kumen.
Un ikh der ershter vel derzen dos vunderlekhe, groyse,
un mer fun mentshn shoyn nisht kenen es farborgn,
fun tir tsu tir, fun shoyb tsu shoyb vel ikh zikh lozn klapn
un onzogn dem likhtikn frimorgen.
Ikh veys nit ver es hot mikh oysdereylt fun ale,
un fremd, farshemt, fun alemen dervayert:
aropgelozt dem kop hob ikh — far gut es ongenumen,
mayn yugnt in dervartungen gelaytert.
In the middle of the night
no one rocks him —
the child cries and frightens
and is silenced.
Sleeps the strange mother
far from the child:
"Whole nights I rock him" —
she boasts to people.
But the child grows,
stops nursing already,
brighter and clearer
become his eyes.
Everyone wishes him gladly
happiness and long years —
in a silk shirt
was the child born.
Childhood
Still as a boy, when all children keep themselves in play,
I held myself already for a grown-up,
lived with myself alone, with people from afar
as if something hidden from everyone.
I had already then seen how people suffer-silence —
I absorbed their silence into myself,
and imagined something far, into white old age,
something great, something wondrous will come from suffering.
And I the first will see the wondrous, the great,
and no longer be able to hide it from people,
from door to door, from window to window I will let myself knock
and announce the bright early morning.
I don't know who chose me from all,
and strange, ashamed, distanced from everyone:
lowering my head I accepted it as good,
my youth purified in expectations.
Page 13. This page continues 'In a zaydn hemdl' and contains the complete poem 'Yinglvayz' (Childhood/As a Boy). 'Yinglvayz' is a crucial autobiographical poem revealing Leivick's early sense of prophetic calling — even as a child he felt set apart, destined to witness and proclaim 'something great' born from suffering. This messianic consciousness pervades much of his later work, including 'The Golem.'
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