If only the sun would rise... “Mommy, some bread!”
Her father got up: “shut up!”
Near the fire in the train car starving refugees
huddle together, dying.
Smoke devours their eyes.
Cold penetrates to the bone.
And behind the train car shouts and a racket,
a barter, a deal, and whistles.
A mother bent over in rags,
in sorrow, in sores. She bundled up
her child in something: “go to sleep, go to sleep.“ –
“may you go to sleep forever...” Life!
We came here, but the famine followed.
But there are no people among the people.
Have you heard?.. nearby a woman recently
cooked her two children...
The father recoiled: “you’ve gone insane!” –
“shut up! shut up! What do you mean by that?”
The mother sprang up and shrieked,
and father spit in her face...
1921