פֿאַרוואָס — פֿאַרווען?
Why — for what?
Work 227 of 440
Page 278. 'Lintsh' conclusion: the 'shayter' (pyre) burns, the skeleton jigs in flames — lynching as grotesque dance. Then begins 'Tsu eynikl fun Onkl Tom' (To Grandson of Uncle Tom) — addressed to the descendant of Harriet Beecher Stowe's character who symbolized passive Christian suffering. The bitter satire mocks minstrel stereotypes: 'shvartser pupik, shvartser boykh' (black belly-button, black belly), the 'roze tsung' (pink tongue), rolled eyes — all performed before the 'geln got' (golden god — mammon/white capitalism). The 'kvure-multer' (grave-mold) and 'sharfl-ansestor' (shuffle-ancestor) mock the degrading shuffle dance. The poem is complex: both critiquing white expectations and perhaps implying revolutionary violence ('mir durkh gvald un mater'). Uncle Tom walks 'frum un shtil' (pious and quiet) into the pyre — passive suffering leading to death.
פֿאַרוואָס — פֿאַרווען?
גיט פֿרעגן ווײַטער.
אָט אַזוי — און שוין.
עס ברענט אַ שײַטער.
אַ שײַטער ברענט
און שײַטלעך קנאַקן
און טויטע הענט
אַ טויטן באַקן.
דער שוואַרצער סקעלעט
פֿאַלט ניט צוזאַמען.
ביז נאַכט ביז שפּעט
ער דזשיגעט אין פֿלאַמען.
צו
אייניקל פֿון אָנקל טאָם
שוואַרצער פּופּיק, שוואַרצער בויך,
זופּ די טויטע גרינע יויך
פֿון דעם ווײַסן שיסל —
און דערנאָך בײַם געלן גאָט
לאָז זיך אין אַ רוישן דזשאַז
מיט דײַן פֿלינקן פֿיסל.
שטעק די ראָזע צונג אַרויס,
קער די אויגן־דעקלעך אויס,
האַרבע־אויף די שולטער:
גיב אַ טרײַסל ווענט און דאַך
פֿון דײַן הײַזקע — קראַך און קראַך —
אָט די קבֿורה־מולטער.
אַלץ דאַרף אײַנפֿאַלן סײַדען —
חורבן ליגט אין טראַכט פֿון מיר —
מיר דורך גוואַלד און מאַטער —
קללה הויערט אויף דײַן שטאַל,
און נאָך מערער — אויפֿן זאַל
פֿון דײַן שאַרפֿל־אַנסעסטאָר.
אַז שלעפּט זיך אָנקל טאָם
פֿרום און שטיל צום שײַטער־פֿלאַם
און — אַרײַן אין שײַטער.
Farvos — farven?
git fregn vayter.
ot azoy — un shoyn.
es brent a shayter.
A shayter brent
un shaytlekh knakn
un toyte hent
a toytn bakn.
Der shvartser skelet
falt nit tsuzamen.
biz nakht biz shpet
er dzhiget in flamen.
Tsu
eynikl fun Onkl Tom
Shvartser pupik, shvartser boykh,
zup di toyte grine yokh
fun dem vaysn shisl —
un dernokh baym geln got
loz zikh in a royshn dzhaz
mit dayn flinkn fisl.
Shtek di roze tsung aroys,
ker di oygn-deklekh oys,
harbe-oyf di shulter:
gib a traysl vent un dakh
fun dayn hayzke — krakh un krakh —
ot di kvure-multer.
Alts darf aynfaln sayden —
khurbn ligt in trakht fun mir —
mir durkh gvald un mater —
klole hoyert oyf dayn shtal,
un nokh merer — oyfn zal
fun dayn sharfl-ansestor.
Az shlept zikh Onkl Tom
frum un shtil tsum shayter-flam
un — arayn in shayter.
Why — for what?
go on asking.
Just so — and that's it.
A pyre is burning.
A pyre burns
and little logs crack
and dead hands
a dead cheek.
The black skeleton
does not fall apart.
Until night until late
he jigs in flames.
To
Grandson of Uncle Tom
Black belly-button, black belly,
slurp the dead green broth
from the white bowl —
and afterward before the golden god
let yourself go in a rousing jazz
with your quick little foot.
Stick out your pink tongue,
roll your eyelids outward,
harsh-up the shoulders:
give a shake to walls and roof
of your little house — crash and crash —
this grave-molder.
Everything must collapse unless —
destruction lies in my thought —
we through violence and torment —
a curse hovers over your stable,
and even more — over the hall
of your shuffle-ancestor.
So drags himself Uncle Tom
pious and quiet toward the pyre-flame
and — into the pyre.
Page 278. 'Lintsh' conclusion: the 'shayter' (pyre) burns, the skeleton jigs in flames — lynching as grotesque dance. Then begins 'Tsu eynikl fun Onkl Tom' (To Grandson of Uncle Tom) — addressed to the descendant of Harriet Beecher Stowe's character who symbolized passive Christian suffering. The bitter satire mocks minstrel stereotypes: 'shvartser pupik, shvartser boykh' (black belly-button, black belly), the 'roze tsung' (pink tongue), rolled eyes — all performed before the 'geln got' (golden god — mammon/white capitalism). The 'kvure-multer' (grave-mold) and 'sharfl-ansestor' (shuffle-ancestor) mock the degrading shuffle dance. The poem is complex: both critiquing white expectations and perhaps implying revolutionary violence ('mir durkh gvald un mater'). Uncle Tom walks 'frum un shtil' (pious and quiet) into the pyre — passive suffering leading to death.
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