LITUANUS
LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Volume 47, No. 4 - Winter 2001
Editor of this issue: M. Gražina Slavėnas ISSN 0024-5089
Copyright © 2001 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc. |
VILNIUS GHETTO
JUDITA VAIČIŪNAITĖ
Translated by M. Gražina Slavėnas
At six o 'clock in the morning,
when the milk shops and newspaper
stands are still closed,
at six in the morning,
in streets and alleys
of the Vilnius ghetto
dandelions unfold,
dusty golden
flowers of the street
blossoming into yellow Jewish stars.
They sprout in cracks,
under crumbling brick,
underground tunnels,
awesome archways,
deep smoke-blackened passages
with a clinging acrid
odor of fish and garlic, i
in the rubble of backyard cellars
dandelions unfold
their golden halos
at six o 'clock in the morning
and their golden splendor also streams
into a tightly sealed-off courtyard
where the forgotten shadow
of a Jew still prays.
Or, perhaps, whispers a curse.
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