- How ravaged you've been, my Jewish town . . .
- Your homes so dismal -- --
- The walls so bent . . .
- Synagogues, "Botei Medroshim"1 -- all silent . . .
- Jewish streets, houses crumbled -- --
- Muted like an echo, silenced in adversity, -- --
- Like covered graves
- They speak of the Holocaust . . . of jeopardy.
- In the courtyard of the "Shul"2
- And of "Beis Hamedresh"3 -- --
- No Jewish children, no pranksters
- Are left to carry on . . . mischief-bent . . .
- To spite Reb Pinchos, the "Shames"4 -- -- --
- The are all wiped off
- From the face of the earth . . .
- Devastated are the Jewish streets . . .
- No fathers, no voices speak out . . .
- "The Chosid"5 , Reb6 Getzel,
- Once live here . . .
- No more sounds are heard of yesteryear!
- Our Jewish remains -- --
- You quiver within my being . . .
- Muted devastation . . . victims in ashes . . .
- It is to you I sing,
- It is to you I dedicate my songs! . . .
* * * * (1) Botei Medroshim -- Houses of study
(2) Shul -- Synagogue
(3) Beis Hamedresh -- House of worship
(4) Shames -- sexton
(5) Chosid -- Adherent of a movement founded in the 18th century, stressing piousness and ecstasy, rather than learning.
(6) Reb -- A title of respect, equivalent to Mister