|
back
SONG OF AN EXILE01. The Song of an Exile
02. Lament for Jerusalem
03. Jeremiah 31:15
04. Terezin
05. Fear
06. God's Beloved
07. Isaiah 49:14-18
08. If I Were
The Song of an Exile
(Shir Golah) Now take your ancient staff, O plundered Jew,
The staff you held more than two thousand years;
And fill your bag with bread as beggars do And fill your jug with water and with tears. Then gird you, loins with strength, O, gird them light! And in the girdle, tuck your garment s hem And place within the fold your infants ? for the blight, The bitter road will soon be known to them. And on you, shoulders bear the tired one
Who gave them life add laboured at you, side.
Now bend your back from dawn to set of sun
And wander! Wander' For the world is wide,
Go into exile, Go! The wrath of God
Pours forth a mighty flood ? you dare not stay ?Then flee, escape the fury of the rod,
The whirling sword behind you points the way.
Lament For Jerusalem
(How Deserted Lies The City)
How deserted lies the city' once so full of people
How like a widow is she, she that was great among the nation,
Bitterly she weeps in the night, tears flow down her cheeks
For there is no-one to comfort her
Exiled and rejected she dwells among the nation.,
Them she finds no resting place, and the roads to Zion mourn
Her enemies ? they laugh at her, laugh at her destruction
Standing naked before them, she turns her face away... Children cry to their mothers "where is bread and wine?"
They faint like wounded men in the streets of the city
As their lives ebb away in their mother's arms
My heart is broken over you, O daughter of Jerusalem, how ca, I comfort you?
Your wound is as deep as the sea ? who can heal you?
Cry aloud to the Lord, give yourself no rest
Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord... O that you would with the Heavens. Lord, and come down
That the mountains would tremble before you like pebbles in your hand
Nations will come to your light
Kings to the brightness of your dawn,
O restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return.
Jeremiah 3I.I5
"A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted.
because her children are no more."
Terezin
That bit of filth in dirty walls,
And all around barbed wire.
And thirty?thousand souls who sleep
Who once will wake
And once will see
Then own blood spilled
I was once a little child,
Three years ago
That child who longed for other worlds.
But now I am no more a child
For I have learned to hate.
I am a grown-up person now,
I have known fear Bloody words and a dead day then,
That s something different than bogie men!
But anyway, I'll still believe I only sleep today. That I'll wake up, a child again, and start to laugh and play.
III go back to childhood sweet like a briar rose,
Like a hell which wakes us from a dream,
Like a mother with an ailing child
Loves him with aching woman's love How tragic, then, is youth which lives
With enemies, with gallows ropes,
How tragic, then, for children on your lap
To say: this for the good, that for the bad. Somewhere, far away out there, childhood sweetly sleeps,
Along that path among the trees,
Them o'er that house
And there my mother gave me birth into this world
So I could weep,, In the flame of candles by dry bed, I sleep
And once perhaps I'll understand
That I was such a little thing,
As little as this song. These thirty-thousand souls who sleep
Among the trees will wake,
Open an eye
And because they see
A lot They'll fall asleep gain...
Fear
Today the ghetto knows a different fear,
Close in its grip, Death wields an icy scythe.
An evil sickness spreads a terror in its wake
The victims of it's shadow weep and writhe. Today a father's heartbeat tells his fright
And mothers bend their heads into their hands.
Now children choke and die with typhus here,
A bitter tax is taken from their bands. My heart still beats inside my breast
While friends depart for other worlds.
Perhaps it's better - who can say,
Than watching this, to die today? No, no, my God we want to live!
Not watch our numbers melt away.
We want to have a better world.
We want to work ? we must not die!
God's Beloved
The love of the princely daughter of Zion
Has been most sweet and pleasant to me.
The love of the princely daughter of Zion
Has been most sweet and pleasant to me.
So ask what have the righteous been doing
Have they been longing for me to return? Soon I shall swiftly fly to the Temple
To stand forever to reign,
Soon I shall swiftly fly to the Temple
To stand forever to reign For I have long loved you with a love that has bound us,
Nurtured the soul and encouraged the heart.
And I say to the prophet, "Have you seen how this maiden
Though battered by storms stayed true to her friend?" And they answer, "This love is a wonder surpassing,
A wonder surpassing all love",
And they answer "This love is a wonder surpassing,
A wonder surpassing all love". And until your lime comes I shall shield and protect you
From those who would seek betrayal to bring,
By my life I shall never fail you nor leave you
And my words they are never in vain.
Isaiah 49:I4.I8
But Zion said,
"The Lord has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me,"
"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget.
I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you in the palms of my hands:
your walls are ever before me. Your sons hasten back,
and those who laid you waste depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around;
all your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I live,
you will wear them all as ornaments
you will put them on, like a bride."
If I Were
Sleep deserts my eyes and I toss like a ship
In the sea of my yearning for you,
As I imagine these things... If I were a child in arms and you were my mother,
then I would suckle and you would quench my thirst. if I were a stream and you and I sat in my garden
would tend your fruit. If I were a shelter and you dwelt within me
We would clothe ourselves with joy. If I were a servant and you were my Lord
I would long to serve you,
O, I would never choose freedom.
back to the top
|
