Unter Dayne Vayse Shterne

Composer: Abraham Sutzkever

Lyricist: Abraham Budno

Yiddish Lyrics

Unter dayne vayse shtern
Shtrek tsu mir dayn vayse hant
Mayne verter zaynen trern
viln ruen in dayn hant
Ze, es tunklt zeyer finkl
In mayn kelerdikn blik
Un ikh hob gornit kayn vinkl
Zey tsu shenken dir tsurik

Un ikh vil dokh, got getrayer
Dir fartroyen mayn farmg
Vayl es mogt in mir a fayer
Un in fayer mayne teg
Nor in kelern un lekher
Veynt di merderishe ru
Loyf ikh hekher, iber dekher
Un ikh zukh, vu bistu, vu?

Nemen yogn mikh meshune
Trep un hoyfn mit gevoy
Heng ikh a geplatste strune
Un ikh zing tsu dir azoy
Unter dayne vayse shtern
Shtrek tsu mir dayn vayse hant
Mayne verter zaynen trern
Viln ruen in dayn hant

English (literal translation)

Under Your white stars

Stretch to me Your white hand.

My words are tears,

Wanting to rest in Your hand.

See, they twinkle very darkly

In my cellar-beaten view;

And I have no place

How to send them back to You.

And I will, dear God,

Confide in you these of mine

While in me a fire grows

And on fire are my days.

But in cellars and holes

Cries the murderous quiet

I fly higher, over rooftops

And I search: Where are You? Where?

Something strange hunts me

Stairs and courtyards are on chase

I hang as a broken bow-string

And I sing to You this way:

Under Your white stars

Stretch to me Your white hand.

My words are tears,

Wanting to rest in Your hand.

Note: (from Mlotek and other sources) This song was written in the Vilna ghetto, words by Abraham Sutskever (1913-2010); music by Abraham Brudno (?-1944). It was first presented in the ghetto theater in the play " Di Yogenish in Fas" (the hunt in the barrel, a pun on Diogenes in a barrel.) It was first sung by Zlate Katcherginsky. After the liquidation of the ghetto, Suskever joined the partisan fighters. He survived the war and lived in Israel where he edited the literary quarterly "Di Goldene Keyt". Sutzkever died January, 20, 2010 The composer, Avrom Brudno, following the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto, was deported to a German concentration camp in Estonia, where he died. YW  https://zemerl.org/song/834

English (singable translation by Roslyn Bresnick-Perry)

Under Your Starry Heaven

Under your white starry heaven

Offer me your pale white hand.

All my words are flowing teardrops,

I would place them in your hand.

Gone the luster from their brightness,

Seen through morbid cellar view -

And I no longer have my own space

To reflect them back to you.

My devoted God I offer

Everything that I possess,

As the fire that I suffer

Fills each fiery day I pass.

Only in the holes and cellars

With deadly rest my days I share.

I run higher - over spire

Searching where are you, oh where?

I am chased by phantom beings

Stairs and courtyards goad me too.

There I hang a broken bowstring -

And I sing once more to you:

Under your white starry heaven

Offer me your pale white hand.

All my words are flowing teardrops,

I would place them in your hand.

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