I just had the weirdest dream
This poem contains lines in Yiddish, with rough translations before and phonetic translations after.
i.
I just had the weirdest dream:
We were strangers in the land of egypt.
Fremde zenen mir geven in land mitsrayim
Hemmed lines in our hands gave way to mime
and we mouthed a thousand languages –
babel’s tatters gestured at our calloused feet.
Each brick was a tongue,
Yeder tsigl iz geven a tsung.
Friends at seder gummed their tile song,
made mortar in their mouths to pave
paths between wayward tribes.
ii.
I just had the weirdest dream.
Our tonsils were the sand of the Sinai
and our lungs were made of dust
un undzere lungen zenen geven fun shtoyb;
we wetted tongues with wine to mend our voices
delirious for want of water.
The blessings that we coughed
Di brokhes vos mir flegn hustn
Dust-ridden and bronchitis-stricken
pleaded with the sky for deliverance
in Arabic, Ladino, Yiddish and Bukhari.
iii.
I just had the weirdest dream.
Strangers were we in Babylon or Speyer or Toledo
I think. The scene kept changing.
Di stsene hot zikh shtendik gebitn.
The tree of life, etz chaim, was a witness
and we struggled to recognize one another
through pillars of smoke.
iv.
I just had the weirdest dream.
Strangers were we while inquisitors asked questions.
Strangers were we in Istanbul, Salonika, and Tangiers.
Fremde zenen mir geven in Lublin un Lemberik.
Huddles lined streets, friends landed like embers
and the air ticked colder
while they hid their clarinets.
v.
I just had the weirdest dream.
We had become a graveyard.
Zenen mir gevorn a besoylem.
(Our arms turned into soil like a golem’s.)
With clasped hands we begged others for asylum.
Strangers are we in Herzliya
Strangers are we on Long Island
Strangers are we in Golders Green
Keyner veyst nisht fun di tsores vos ikh hob gezeyn –
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.
I just had the weirdest dream.
