Leib Rubinlicht 

Snow in Auschwitz

That night a downy snow fell

And covered the site with a veil of white

Through the barred barrack windows

We stare at its whiteness by the glare of the fire

The Auschwitz chimneys spew out their flames

To faraway heavens in the quiet of night

The red and snow-white colors mingle together

And shimmer in the pastoral symphonic cover.

See how the symphony from that wintery night,

When flames from the crematoria united

With heaven-sent white snowy glory —

Distracted the king of demons from augmenting the agony.

translated from the Yiddish by Karen Alkalay-Gut

translator’s note;  Last year I thumbed through a book of Leib Rubinlicht’s poems.  I knew the name only because I had won a poetry prize in that name and found that no one, even the organizers of the prize, could tell me anything about him.  I found one reference, a book in the Spielberg Archive . Digitalised, of course, since nothing was available in any library I searched.  By the time I found it, it was almost time for the award ceremony and I picked a page at random to read.  The poem was so great, that instead of an acceptance speech, I translated it.