Tadeusz Rózewicz (tr. tkg), "Slaughter of the boys"

[Senna Jawa]

Tadeusz Różewicz (tr. tkg), "Slaughter of the boys"

--


Slaughter of the boys

The children cried out: -- Mummy!
I have been good!
It's dark! Dark!

See them They go to the bottom
See the small feet
They went to the bottom. Do you see
the prints
of small feet here and there

their pockets bulge
with string and stones
and little horses made of wire

A great plain enclosed
like a geometric figure
and a tree of black smoke
vertical
a dead tree
with no star in its crown.
​

(Museum-Auschwitz, 1948)


Tadeusz Różewicz
- trans. Tadeusz K. Gierymski

 

[wildsweetone]

a powerful poem, from the beginning, through the middle right to the last word.