Unter Dayne Vayse Shterne

Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern (Under Your White Stars)

Lyrics: Abraham Sutzkever 

Music: 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

Translation

Under Your white stars
Extend Your white hand to me
My words are tears
Which want to rest in Your hand

See how they've lost their gleam
from the vantage of my cellar -
and I haven't even a corner 

in which to pray.

And yet I want, my dear God
to entrust in You all I have
for a fire burns inside me
and the fire consumes my days.

Only in cellars and pits
can I find my torturous rest
So, I run across the rooftops
looking for You. Where are You?

I am chased by evil spirits.
They goad me on stairways and in courtyards
I hand a broken violin string
and that's how I sing to You:

Under Your white stars
extend Your white hand to me
My words are tears
which want to rest in Your hand

Listen at:

https://www.milkenarchive.org/music/volumes/view/the-art-of-jewish-song/work/unter-dayne-vayse-shtern/

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Notes: clip here from Mandy Patinkin's CD Mamaloshen *Note: (from Mlotek and other sources) This song was written in the Vilno ghetto, words by Avraham Sutskever (1913-); 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 lives in Israel where he edits the literary quarterly "Di Goldene Keyt". The composer, Abraham Brudno, following the liquidation of the ghetto, was deported to a German concentration camp in Estonia, where he died.

Here is another note about this song from the Milken Archive:

Avraham Sutskever is believed to have written this poem in the Vilna Ghetto, where it was originally set to a haunting melody by Abraham Brudno and sung there by Zlate Katcherginsky in a theatrical production of the play Di yogn in fas (The Hunt in the Barrel—a parody of Diogenes in a barrel). After the liquidation of the ghetto, Sutskever joined the partisan fighters and survived the Holocaust. Brudno was deported to a German concentration camp in Estonia, where he was murdered in 1943 or 1944. His version, however, is entirely unrelated to Weiner’s song.

By: Yehudi Wyner