POEMS
Jacob
Glatshteyn
(1896-1 971)
SMALL NIGHT·MUSIC
Shadow me in, dark me in, disappear me .
I am too small to live big.
Happen around me less and less,
Flutter around me mysteries of small things.
Give me back my portion of world
On a small saucer,
Quiver around me sunrises,
Sunsets, rains, sleep.
Give me the smallest cot.
I am too small to live big.
Blow quietly on my life
And put it out.
12
Trust me just from here to here
And a few steps more.
I am coming by myself, I won't cheat you.
I shall bring you my open face
And you will sense all the becauses .
I am oversaddened with books
And drunk with the wine of times,
And I am languid as a pampered cat
In
a warm house.
Editor's Note: These poems are from an anthology of
American Yiddish Poetry,
edited
by
Benjamin Hrushovski and Barbara Benavie, to be published by University of
California Press. Jacob Glatshteyn's and M .L. Halpern's poems were translated
from the Yiddish by Benjamin Hrushovski and Kathryn Hellerstein.
A.
Leyeles's
andJ.L. Teller's poems were translated from the Yiddish by Benjamin Hrushovski
and Barbara Benavie.
