Unter dayne vayse shtern [Under Your White Stars]

Avrom Sutzkever (1913-2010), a descendant of rabbinic and Hasidic families, is widely regarded as one of the greatest Yiddish poets. Born in Belorussia, he moved to Vilna in 1920 and was in the Vilna ghetto during the Holocaust, escaping to join the partisans. After testifying at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, he settled in Palestine in 1947. From 1949 until his death in 2010 he edited the Yiddish literary quarterly, Di Goldene Keyt. Unter dayne vayse shtern was set to music by Avrom Brudno, who is known for this and other Holocaust songs, and who was sent to his death at a German concentration camp in Estonia when the Vilna ghetto was liquidated in 1943.

Under your white starry heaven offer me your pale white hand. All my words are flowing teardrops, I would place them in your hand. Gone the luster from their brightness, seen through morbid cellar view, and I no longer have my own space to reflect them back to you. My devoted God I offer everything that I possess, as the fire that I suffer fills each fiery day I pass. Only in the holes and cellars with deadly rest my days I share. I run higher – over spire searching where are you, oh where? I am chased by phantom beings; stairs and courtyards goad me too. There I hang a broken bowstring and I sing once more to you: Under your white starry heaven offer me your pale white hand. All my words are flowing teardrops, I would place them in your hand. [Translation by Rosalyn Bresnick-Perry]