Original: “Fayer un shney”

(”פֿײַער און שניי“)

From: In si-geyt baym yam

(אין סי-געיט ביים ים)

pp. 30–31

Year: 1957

Author: Aliza Greenblatt

(עליזה גרינבלאַט)

Translator: Dov Greenwood

Class: Yale JDST 418 with Josh Price

“Fire and Snow”

1.

Every start in drunkenness, 

Every end in sullenness, 

Every yesterday drags on, 

Blindly draw the thread along. 

2.

The things that can revive are rife 

With joy and silent sore,

My child will forge the chain of life, 

When I am no more. 

3.

With snow on my head

And fire in my heart, 

Staunchly I bear the years 

Upon my shoulders.

My child-like hand 

Guides me along

And I ask no one

For favors. 

4.

On the blunt whetstone of time 

I have grown ripe, now I’m 

Laughing child-like to myself 

The laughter of a little elf. 

5.

All kinds of little flowers grow, 

Dainty lilies, white as snow,

Roses red as fire-flame, 

Lungworts blue as ocean foam. 

Daffodils of golden-brown

Twined together like a crown. 

Daisies white and purple blue— 

All bedecked with springtime dew. 

All kinds bloom from every stem, 

The Lord created all of them. 

6.

I'm lonely in this God’s world, 

My heart is homesick and heavy, 

It flickers in life’s hollowness,

In its own fire it burns. 

My song, my only stay,

A star on my lonely way,

I bathe my verse in agony

And thank you, Lord Almighty. 

7.

God, your eye guards the world, 

From you no matter is withheld, 

You have happiness for all.

The smallest worm beneath a stone, 

Too, does not remain alone.