אָ, מײַן חבֿר, מײַן ליבער, מײַן ליבער,
Oh, my friend, my dear, my dear,
Work 342 of 440
Page 400. 'A briv fun Amerike tsu a vaytn fraynt' CONCLUSION. Final tender address: 'O, mayn khaver, mayn liber' (Oh, my friend, my dear — Hebrew 'chaver'). 'Onheyb friling' (beginning of spring) — earth 'kvalt mit vunder, un kvalt ariber' (wells with wonder, and wells over). Affirmation: 'dos vos es darf vern — vert' (what must become — becomes). Beautiful closing image: 'Ikh vil fun der vaytns dayn otem hern' (I want from the distance to hear your breath). The instruction: 'leyg tsu dayne lipn tsu der erd' (lay your lips to the earth) — and I mine — 'azoy veln mir vern beyde in der likhtiker nakht derhert' (so will we both in the bright night be heard). Communication through the earth itself, lips pressed to the ground to speak across continents, heard in the 'likhtiker nakht' (bright night). This ends the long epistolary poem dated 1927, spanning pages 388-400, one of Leivick's major American Yiddish documents addressing immigrant experience, Morris Rosenfeld, sweatshop labor, racial solidarity, and the poet's mission.
אָ, מײַן חבֿר, מײַן ליבער, מײַן ליבער,
עס איז אָנהייב פֿרילינג, און די ערד
קוואַלט מיט וואונדער, און קוואַלט אַריבער: —
און דאָס וואָס עס דאַרף ווערן — ווערט.
איך וויל פֿון דער ווײַטנס דײַן אָטעם הערן,
לייג צו דײַנע ליפּן צו דער ערד,
און איך — מײַנע, און אַזוי וועלן מיר ווערן
ביידע אין דער ליכטיקער נאַכט דערהערט.
O, mayn khaver, mayn liber, mayn liber,
es iz onheyb friling, un di erd
kvalt mit vunder, un kvalt ariber: —
un dos vos es darf vern — vert.
Ikh vil fun der vaytns dayn otem hern,
leyg tsu dayne lipn tsu der erd,
un ikh — mayne, un azoy veln mir vern
beyde in der likhtiker nakht derhert.
Oh, my friend, my dear, my dear,
it is beginning of spring, and the earth
wells with wonder, and wells over: —
and what must become — becomes.
I want from the distance to hear your breath,
lay your lips to the earth,
and I — mine, and so will we become
both in the bright night heard.
Page 400. 'A briv fun Amerike tsu a vaytn fraynt' CONCLUSION. Final tender address: 'O, mayn khaver, mayn liber' (Oh, my friend, my dear — Hebrew 'chaver'). 'Onheyb friling' (beginning of spring) — earth 'kvalt mit vunder, un kvalt ariber' (wells with wonder, and wells over). Affirmation: 'dos vos es darf vern — vert' (what must become — becomes). Beautiful closing image: 'Ikh vil fun der vaytns dayn otem hern' (I want from the distance to hear your breath). The instruction: 'leyg tsu dayne lipn tsu der erd' (lay your lips to the earth) — and I mine — 'azoy veln mir vern beyde in der likhtiker nakht derhert' (so will we both in the bright night be heard). Communication through the earth itself, lips pressed to the ground to speak across continents, heard in the 'likhtiker nakht' (bright night). This ends the long epistolary poem dated 1927, spanning pages 388-400, one of Leivick's major American Yiddish documents addressing immigrant experience, Morris Rosenfeld, sweatshop labor, racial solidarity, and the poet's mission.
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