Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Shtume Shprakh (Mute Language)

Shtume Shprakh (Mute Language)

(originally in sonnet form)

I looked around — and saw that half
of my years are fading on the dirt road;
that over my life, there closes,
from my burial shroud, the first pale fold.
So I doubled up like a swallow,
that no longer finds her nest under the roof.
From youth I separated in mute language —
as a cow that accompanies her calf to the
slaughterer’s knife.
And old age starts to gnash with wrinkles,
The “Here lays hiddens” are embedded deep in the
skin of my countenance,
And pushes to the grave, and steeply accelerates
my fast decline toward there, where hair and whip
silence screech and hand-wave, where between walls
of silent grave rest legs and arms.

— Translated by Itzik Gottesman

Jeremiah Hescheles passed away October 16, 2010. Read a tribute to him here.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.