ONE STORM

when things get really bad, think about worse things, i sometimes say.  and the worst song i have ever heard is Papirossen (cigarettes).  So to comfort myself i translated it today from the Yiddish.  It was written by Herman Yablokoff  about a child selling cigarettes on the street around the time of World War I.  Here is the draft:

A foggy cold night
With windows everywhere.

A sad little boy stands
looking all around.
Only a wall protects him

From the pouring rain
He holds a tray in his hand
And his eyes strike every one dumb.

“I have no strength left
to walk around in the street.
Hungry and ragged,
wet from the rain

I drag myself around from dawn,
Nobody helps me earn a thing
Everyone laughs, they mock me.

Come buy, come buy cigarettes

Dry, not wet with rain.

Come buy, cheap, authentic.

Buy and have some mercy on me.
Save me from burning starvation.

Buy some ancient matches
With it you will restore an orphan.
My calls and my running are in vain

From me no one wants to buy

Like a dog I will have to die.

Once I had a sister
A child of nature.

She dragged alongside me
for an entire year.

It was much easier with her around

The hunger was more tolerable
When I would look at her.

Suddenly she became

Weak and very ill

She died in my arms

On a street bench.
And I lost her,
I have been through everything

Let death too come to me already.

Come buy, come buy cigarettes

Dry, not wet with rain.

Come buy, cheap, authentic.

Buy and have some mercy upon me.
Save me from burning starvation.

Buy some ancient matches
With it you will restore an orphan.