History repeats and they say I got a troubled mind

[sovay]

My poem "The Watchword" has been accepted by Uncanny Magazine. It's a ghost poem for Hirsh Glik.

Last night in the shower spatch asked if the still here, still here, still here in my post about the news of the Tree of Life shooting was a quotation. I said no, it was just me, but I don't think that's quite true. "The Watchword" takes its title from a line in "Zog nit keyn mol," the partisan anthem written by Glik in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943. By the war's end, which Glik did not live to see, it was being sung in ghettos, in camps, by partisans in the forests. A Besere Velt will be singing it this December in New York. Here's the first verse:

,זאָג ניט קיין מאָל, אַז דו גייסט דעם לעצטן וועג
.כאָטש הימלען בלײַענע פֿאַרשטעלן בלויע טעג
– קומען וועט נאָך אונדזער אויסגעבענקטע שעה
!ס׳וועט אַ פּויק טאָן אונדזער טראָט: מיר זײַנען דאָ

Zog nit keyn mol, az du geyst dem letstn veg,
khotsh himlen blayene farshteln bloye teg.
Kumen vet nokh undzer oysgebenkte sho—
s'vet a poyk ton undzer trot: mir zaynen do!

Never say that you walk the last road
even when leaden skies cover blue days.
Our long-awaited hour will come yet—
our steps will make a drum: we are here!

So there's that.

swan_tower has a good roundup of the ongoing Arisia situation. I found out last night that my post on the subject got picked up by File 770. (With my last name misspelled per still sometimes usual [edit: fixed!], but if I didn't search for the variations, I would never find out that I'd been part of a book club at a Kansas synagogue.) rydra_wong has been aggregating links on the Pittsburgh shooting, plus the critical importance of voting. Notice the Muslim fundraisers.

I had nightmares, but I slept.

Comments

[cmcmck]

The song reminds me slightly of 'Peat Bog Soldiers' which has always made me thoughtful.

'But for us there is no complaining,
Winter will in time be past.
One day we shall rise rejoicing.
Homeland, dear, you're mine at last.'

[sovay]

The song reminds me slightly of 'Peat Bog Soldiers' which has always made me thoughtful.

I suspect a lot of songs of resistance and endurance share common hopes.

[selkie]

'Moorsoldaten' is of the same time, if not the place. I swear it's on the Partisans of Vilna album? Now that's gonna drive me nuts. Also now I have it in my head. In English! Oy.

[sovay]

I swear it's on the Partisans of Vilna album? Now that's gonna drive me nuts. Also now I have it in my head. In English! Oy.

It's not on Partisans of Vilna, but it was recorded—in a mixed English-German version—by Theodore Bikel. I learned it from his singing.

[edit] It's the same album from which I learned "Di Shvue" and "Mrs. McGrath." It was a very useful collection of songs.

[cmcmck]

I found the English version on, of all unlikely places, a Dubliners album!

[sovay]

I found the English version on, of all unlikely places, a Dubliners album!

Cool! Do you like their version?

[selkie]

In folk music as in life, you always come through. (I still get "Blow the Candle Out," Bikel version, in my head at the WORST moments.)

[sovay]

In folk music as in life, you always come through.

*hugs*

(I still get "Blow the Candle Out," Bikel version, in my head at the WORST moments.)

Aaaaagh well I guess there's my soundtrack for the rest of the day.

[selkie]

Name it after me, in my head right now in fact, when I ought to be warming up for El Malei Rachamim, but hey, he was Jewish. He just wants to be with us in spirit.

[sovay]

He just wants to be with us in spirit.

He was an activist as well as an actor-singer. Civil rights, progresive politics, got arrested once protesting for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate. I'm glad to have him.

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the poetry sale!

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poetry sale!

Thank you!

[rosefox]

I left a comment at File 770 correcting their spelling; they fixed my pronouns in the post where they linked to my recap, so I hope they are similarly swift to fix your name.

[sovay]

I left a comment at File 770 correcting their spelling; they fixed my pronouns in the post where they linked to my recap, so I hope they are similarly swift to fix your name.

Thank you! (I'm glad they fixed your pronouns.)

[edit] They fixed the spelling!

[dewline]

"...our steps will make a drum..."

And I think also of our Indigenous neighbours with that metaphor...

[sovay]

And I think also of our Indigenous neighbours with that metaphor...

That makes sense to me.

[asakiyume]

Congratulations on the acceptance--and interesting about the almost/maybe referent for your still here

[sovay]

Congratulations on the acceptance--

Thank you!

and interesting about the almost/maybe referent for your still here

I have a lot of echoes in my head. [edit] It's part of what they're doing in the Orsinian poem.

[umadoshi]

Hooray for the poem acceptance!

[sovay]

Hooray for the poem acceptance!

Thank you!