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Mameloshn: Yiddish Poems About Nature, #1
Barnett Zumoff
April 15, 2014
Spring, by Tsilye Dropkin
Translated by Barnett Zumoff SPRING in the evening, the sky kissed the dark meadow, and when night came, the sky lay upon the meadow, pressed his hot breast against the earth, and nourished her all night with the fluids from his body. In the morning, the sky spun out sunshine upon the body of his black wife.
FRILING
Der rozer himl hot farnakht
Dos shvartse feld gekusht,
Un ven es iz gekumen nakht,
iz der himl afn feld gelegn,
Un tsugeleygt tsu der erd zayn heyse brust
un gezetikt zi a gantse nakht mit di zaftn fun zayn layb.
In frimorgn hot der himl zunenshayn geshpint
af dem kerper fun zayn shvartser vayb.
TSILYE DROPKIN (1888-1956) was born in Kiev and immigrated to the U.S. at age 24. Her poetry is characterized by intense feeling and is often about being a mother, a wife, or a lover. Dropkin was also a gifted painter.
MAMELOSHN is supported at the Jewish Currents website and in print by the Atran Foundation.
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