Part I
- Introduction
Tempo giusto
- I Play
Lento
Part II
-
Introduction
Lento dramatico
-
O My Agonies
Lento
Part III
-
Introduction
Andante e rubato
-
The Train Wagons
Andante con moto
-
Vocalize
Andante sostenuto
-
To the Heavens
Adagio doloroso
Part IV
-
Introduction
Adagio sostenuto
-
Warsaw
Lento
|
Part V
-
Introduction
Lento expressivo
-
Too Late
Lento
Part
VI
-
Introduction
Allegro
-
The Synagogues Are on Fire
Allegro moderato; Andante
Part VII
-
In the Beginning of the End
Lento e rubato; Lento
Part VIII
-
Introduction
Marcia (moderato assai)
-
The Uprising
Lento e rubato (recitativo); Marcia
Part IX
-
Prayer
Lento espressivo
Part X
-
Rise Up, My People!
Lento (quasi marcia funebre); Lento
|
1
Sing! Take you light, hollow harp in hand,
Strike hard with heavy fingers, like pain filled hearts
On its thin chords. Sing the last song.
Sing of the last Jews on Europe's soil2
How can I sing? How can I open my lips?
I that am left alone in the wilderness
My wife, my two children, alas!
I shudder¦ Someone's crying! I hear it from afar.
3
Sing, sing! Raise your tormented and broken voice,
Look for him, look up, if He is still there
Sing to Him
Sing Him the last song of the last Jew,
Who lived, died unburied, and is no more.?
4
How can I sing? How can I lift my head?
My wife, my Benzionke and Yomele a baby deported¦
They are not with me, yet they never leave me.
O dark shadows of my brightest lights, O cold, blind
shadows!
5
Sing, sing for the last time on earth.
Throw back your head; fix your eyes upon Him.
Sing to Him for the Last time, play to Him on your harp;
There are no more Jews! They were killed,
they are no more.
6
How can I sing? How can I lift my head
with bleary eyes? A frozen tear
Clouds my eye It struggles to break loose,
But, God my God, it cannot fall.
7
Sing, sing! Raise your eyes towards the high, blind skies
As if a God were there Beckon to him, -
As if a great joy still shone for us there!
Sit on the ruins of the murdered people and sing!
8
How can I sing My world is laid waste.
How can I play with wringed hands?
Where are my dead? O God, I seek them in every dunghill,
In every heap of ashes O tell me where you are. |
9
Scream from every sand dune, from under every stone,
Scream from the dust and fire and smoke
It is your blood, your sap, the marrow of your bones,
It is your flesh and blood! Scream, scream aloud!10
Scream from the beasts entrails in the wood, from the fish in the river
That devoured you. Scream from furnaces. Scream, young
and old.
I want a shriek, an outcry, a sound, I want a sound from
you.
Scream, O murdered Jewish people, scream scream aloud!
11
Do not scream to heaven that is as deaf as the dunghill earth.
Do not scream to the sun, nor talk t that lamp If I could
only
Extinguish it like a lamp in this bleak murderers cave!
My people, you were radiant more than the sun, a purer,
brighter light!
12
Show yourself, my people. Emerge, reach out
From the miles-long, dense, deep ditches,
Covered with lime and burned, layer upon layer,
Rise up! Up! from the deepest, bottommost layer!
13
Come from Treblibka, from Sobibor, Auschwitz,
Come from Belzec, Ponari, from all other camps,
With wide open eyes, frozen cries and soundless screams,
Come from Marshes, deep sunken swamps, foul moss
14
Come, you dried, ground, crushed Jewish bones.
Come, from a big circle around me, one great ring
Grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers, mothers carrying
babies.
Come, Jewish bones, out of powder and soup.
15
Emerge, reveal yourselves to me. Come, all of you, come.
I want to see you. I want to look at you. I want
Silently and mutely to behold my murdered people
And I will sing yes Hand me the harp I will play!
(October 3-5th, 1943) |