To Say A Prayer by Abraham Sutzkever

To Say A Prayer

^{Translated from the Yiddish of Abraham Sutzkever}

I have the urge to say a prayer. I do not know to whom.
He who once gave me comfort will not hear it, should it come.
To whom, then, would I pray?
I am its choked-up prey.

Maybe I should entreat a star up there: "old distant friend,
Come substitute for my lost speech. I am at my words' end.
"That good star deep in ether
Won't hear my prayer either.

But I have got to say a prayer. Someone very near,
Somebody in my soul is tortured, and demands a prayer.
So I jabber on and on
Senselessly until dawn.

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- Vilna Ghetto, January 1942

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Avraham Sutzkever was born in Smorgon (now Belarus) on July 15, 1913. His family settled in Vilna, where he got involved with the Yung Vilne, a group of aspiring Yiddish writers. His first collection, Lider, was published in 1937. When the Vilna ghetto was established, Sutzkever (like the other members of the leftist group) continued his creative work and became one of the ghetto's most famous poets. Gradually, through his extensive involvement with the partisans, his writings took on a more political tone. His revolutionary spirit was not confined to his writing. He also engaged in numerous acts of armed resistance.
When he heard of the imminent liquidation of the ghetto, Sutzkever and his wife escaped to Moscow, and shortly after the war, the couple left for France and later for Israel, where he died in 2010.
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A. Z. Foreman

A. Z. Foreman is a literary translator, poet and language-acquisition addict currently working on a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages at the Ohio State University. His translations from Arabic, Chinese, Latin, Occitan, Ukrainian, Russian, Irish and Yiddish have appeared in sundry publications including Metamorphoses, Blue Unicorn, Asymptote, the Penguin Book of Russian Poetry, and at least two people's tattos. He also writes his own poetry if things are dire enough. Most importantly, if you have a dog or even a tame fox he'd love to pet it.

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