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Translations of Holocaust poems by Ber Horvitz aka Ber Horowitz

Der Himmel
"The Heavens"
by Ber Horvitz
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
These skies
are leaden, heavy, gray ...
I long for a pair
of deep blue eyes.
 
The birds have fled
far overseas;
tomorrow I’ll migrate too,
I said ...
 
These gloomy autumn days
it rains and rains.
Woe to the bird
Who remains ...
 
***
 
Doctorn
"Doctors"
by Ber Horvitz
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
Early this morning I bandaged
the lilac tree outside my house;
I took thin branches that had broken away
and patched their wounds with clay.
 
My mother stood there watering
her window-level flower bed;
The morning sun, quite motherly,
kissed us both on our heads!
 
What a joy, my child, to heal!
Finished doctoring, or not?
The eggs are nicely poached
And the milk's a-boil in the pot.
 
***
 
Broit
“Bread”
by Ber Horvitz
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
Night. Exhaustion. Heavy stillness. Why?
On the hard uncomfortable floor the exhausted people lie.
 
Flung everywhere, scattered over the broken theater floor,
the exhausted people sleep. Night. Late. Too tired to snore.
 
At midnight a little boy cries wildly into the gloom:
"Mommy, I’m afraid! Let’s go home!”
 
His mother, reawakened into this frightful palace,
presses her frightened child even closer to her breast …
 
"If you cry, I’ll leave you here, all alone!
A little boy must sleep ... this is now our new home.”
 
Night. Exhaustion. Heavy stillness all around,
exhausted people sleeping on the hard ground.
 
***
 
My Lament
by Ber Horvitz
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
Nothingness enveloped me
as tender green toadstools
are enveloped by snow
with its thick, heavy prayer shawl …
After that, nothing could hurt me …
                                                                                                                                
Ber Horowitz (1895-1942): Born to village people in the woods of Maidan in the West Carpathians, Horowitz showed art talent early on. He went to gymnazie in Stanislavov, and then served in the Austrian army during WWI, where he was a medic to Italian prisoners of war. He studied medicine in Vienna and was published in many Yiddish newspapers. Fluent in several languages, he translated Polish and Ukrainian to Yiddish. He wrote poetry in Yiddish. A victim of the Holocaust, he was murdered in 1942 by Nazis, although the details are not known.
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