Mameloshn: Yiddish Poems about Nature, #2

The Sun and I, by Rohl Fishman

Translated by Barnett Zumoff I am sunned through and sunned out and finished with sunning. Open me up, and from my innards will spurt the hot core of sun. I ingest so much sun that I laugh and radiate back to the sun burning hot signals. Every corner of me is lit up, but I am not afraid. Full of sun, it’s all the same to me whether I shine or am shined upon! DI ZUN UN IKH Ikh bin durkhgezunt un oysgezunt un opgezunt. Pral mikh oyf, vet fun mayn ineveynik aroysshisn der heyser zunkern. Ikh shling-ayn azoy fil zun ikh lakh un gli-tsurik der zun zudike signaln. Ale mayne vinklekh in dem likht, nor kh’hob nit moyre. Iz mir alts eyns tsi ikh shtral tsi ikh ver bashtralt! Rokhl Fishman (1935-1984) was born in Philadelphia and died at 49 in Israel, to which she had immigrated at 19. In 1978 she won the Itzik Manger Prize for Yiddish Literature. MAMELOSHN is supported at the Jewish Currents website and in print by the Atran Foundation.