From the recording Fray

Lyrics

a lid vet farblaybn a song will remain

Yiddish poem and English translation: Simcha Simchovitch (SIMCHA WRITES/SOCAN)
music: Lenka Lichtenberg (LENKAL MUSIC/SOCAN)


a lid vet farblaybn, a gezang
fun fayer un flamen aroys;
fun dor tsu dor vet es geyn,
nisht vern farshtumt un oys.

a shir-hashirim fun payn,
fun blut, fun vey un vind;
fun tate-mames, yungfroyen,
fun mener, zokn un kind.

fun yidishe shtet un shtetlekh
oysgeglaykhte mit dr’erd,
fun retsakh, hefker-umzinikn –
in roykh, fayer un shverd.

a gezang, a demome-geyomer,
a makhtiker shal un gehayl -
fun vaytste sfern, mazoles,
biz tsu der zindiker koyl.


A song will remain, a chant of woe
out of fire and sword;
from generation to generation
carried like a holy watchword.

A Song of Songs – of suffering,
of anguish, grief and torment,
of fathers, mothers and babes,
of maidens and of old men.

Of Jewish towns and hamlets
erased from dear homey ground,
of murder, wanton and senseless,
by merciless, blood-stained hands.

A ditty, a still-voiced song,
a mighty resounding lament
from far-away constellations
to the sinful earth’s end.