Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Forverts in English

In Memory Of 9/11: A Picture Of September Twelfth

This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The poem, written in Yiddish by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, was translated by Zackary Sholem Berger.

A Picture of September Twelfth

In the spitefully
beautiful
day
you hung up
a thousand copies
of my beautiful
photo.
Extremely abridged
bio,
dry statistics,
kids on my lap.
My smile, eternally warm,
greeted all the
shocked commuters
who still had
somewhere to go.
You covered
every wall
and pole,
for your husband’s sake
made him
famous
for a moment.
But tell me, darling,
where did you think I had gone?

Read the original Yiddish poem here. From the collection “Sudden Rain.”

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.