The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #170217   Message #4140904
Posted By: Felipa
01-May-22 - 06:49 PM
Thread Name: ADD: Songs of Mordecai Gebirtig (1877-1942)
Subject: ADD: Translation of MINUTN FUN YIESH
so far I haven't found Yiddish for this song
A translation and a recording are at https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/song/moments-of-despair

"'Moments of Despair' was written in Krakow in September 1940 on the first anniversary of the German invasion of Poland. The lyrics to this piece comment upon a year of persecution and the uncertainty of the future."

MINUTN FUN YIESH - M. Gebirtig

TRANSLATION

A year now of wartime,
How ghastly, how vast!
How can people live through this?
How can they endure?

A year of persecution,
Of hardship, of pain,
What will become of us?
What will be our fate?

Futile our prayers,
We've slipped past God's reach,
The heavens are locked tight
As the core of the earth.

The heavens are locked tight,
And fearfully dark;
Without question or doubt,
This tortures our hearts.

Without question or doubt
The secret's disclosed:
There is no more justice,
There is no more God.

No peace or solace,
Just hardship and pain.
What will become of us?
What will be our fate?