Chisinau-- As you said the cemetery is the witness to the city's
Jewish past . As Avi Raanan reminded us , Bialik's Ir Haharega - The
City of Slaughter tells the sad story . Hopefully we shall never
forget it .
[Josefine Koch]
On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 9:18 AM, Merle Kastner <merlebk18_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you Jerome and Edgar.
> Merle
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bounce-120730930-72404386_at_list.cornell.edu [mailto:bounce-120730930-72404386_at_list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Avi Raanan
> Sent: August-29-16 11:42 AM
> To: Christian Herrmann; czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu
> Cc: Edgar Hauster; Jerome Schatten; HARDY3_at_bezeqint.net
> Subject: Re: [Cz-L] In Chisinau
> Importance: High
>
> Dear friends,
>
> With help from Jerome Shatten and Edgar Houster, I succeeded to receive an
> English version and thus finally succeeded to post this message. Thanks!
>
> The Chisinau Pogrom was in 1903. Haim Nahman Bialik wrote an unforgettable
> poem " Beir Haarega (in hebrew) - The City of Slaughter "
> which started with the immortal words - Kum leh lha el ir haarega - Arise
> and go now to the city of Slaughter"
> And the entire 1st pasage (from 12) is describing a terrible pogrom:
>
> ARISE and go now to the city of slaughter;
> Into its courtyard wind thy way;
> There with thine own hand touch, and with the eyes of
> thine head,
> Behold on tree, on stone, on fence, on mural clay,
> The spattered blood and dried brains of the dead.
> Proceed thence to the ruins, the split walls reach,
> Where wider grows the hollow, and greater grows the
> breach;
> Pass over the shattered hearth, attain the broken wall
> Whose burnt and barren brick, whose charred stones reveal
> The open mouths of such wounds, that no mending
> Shall ever mend, nor healing ever heal.
> There will thy feet in feathers sink, and stumble
> On wreckage doubly wrecked, scroll heaped on manuscript,
> Fragments again fragmented—
> Pause not upon this havoc; go thy way.
> The perfumes will be wafted from the acacia bud
> And half its blossoms will be feathers,
> Whose smell is the smell of blood!
> And, spiting thee, strange incense they will bring—
> Banish thy loathing—all the beauty of the spring,
> The thousand golden arrows of the sun,
> Will flash upon thy malison;
> The sevenfold rays of broken glass
> Over thy sorrow joyously will pass,
> For God called up the slaughter and the spring together,—
> The slayer slew, the blossom burst, and it was sunny
> weather!
>
> (H.N. Bialik, "The City of Slaughter" in Complete Poetic Works of Hayyim
> Nahman Bialik, Israel Efros, ed. (New York, 1948): 129-43 (Vol. I))
>
> The Hebrew version is more dramatic and transfer the terrible sights to the
> reader, but it cannot be posted in our group. (I tried few times but it was
> rejected by the system).
>
> The last sentence may be the opening line for describing the world's silence
> during the 2nd world war:
> " Ha Shemesh zarha, Hashita Parha, vhashohet shhat (hebrew) - the slayer
> slew , the bloosom burst and the sun rizes"
> Bialik meant - Pogroms were normal procedure despite the Haskala movement ,
> liberal non Jewish education, emancipation, assimilation, modernism etc.
> the old "good" anti-Semitism is in the roots.
>
> In Israel education system, it was part of the poems we learned in the high
> school.
> Whenever I hear the name Chisinau, the immediate connotation is to
> Bialik's Poem which follows the pogrom!
> Christian's pictures and poste are perfectly serving to preserve the past
> and remind to the 2nd and 3rd generation the rich amazing History of Jewish
> life in Basarabia, Bukovina, Galizia.
>
> Avi
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Received on 2016-08-29 10:44:09