Songbird, or Six Folk Songs

Pesach-Elijah Badkhn

1871

(The songs)
It frightens us so,
With our poor wares to go
And face the wide world and its scorn.
We have lived many days,
But know only the ways.
Of the villages where we were born.
(The author)
You’ve got nothing to fear,
Just go straight out from here—
You’ll find friendship in towns big and small.
The villager’s art,
If it’s clever and smart
Won’t be looked down on at all.
(The songs)
Still, we fear to depart:
Who will have the kind heart
To provide us with lodging and rest?
The learned, we know,
Will tell us to go.
We’ll be lodged with poor badkhns at best.
(The author)
If only you knew:
Books more foolish than you,
Belong to the rich upper class.
Their spines, I am told,
All have letters of gold
And their bookshelves have doors made of glass.
(The songs)
Yet we fear we’ll be shamed;
By Hasidim—defamed,
And denounced where maskilim hold sway.
For the one—not Hasidish,
For the other—too Yiddish.
So they’ll both want us out of the way.

Translated by
Solon
Beinfeld
.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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