Fotografia

WLADYSLAW SZLENGEL

A SMALL STATION OF TREBLINKA


Here is the small station of Treblinka
Here is the small station of Treblinka
On the line between Tluszcz and Warszawa
From the railway station Warsaw - East
You get out of the station and travel straight

The journey lasts
five hours and 45 minutes more
And sometimes the same journey lasts
A whole life until your death

And the station is very small
Three firtrees grow there
And a regular signboard saying
Here is the small station of Treblinka...
Here is the small station of Treblinka...

And no cashier even
Gone is the cargo man
And for a million zloty
You will not get a return ticket

And nobody waits for you in the station
And nobody waves a handkerchief towards you
Only silence hung there in the air
To welcome you in the blind wilderness

And silent is the pillar of the station
And silent are the three firtrees
And silent is the black board
Because here is the small station of Treblinka...

Here is the small station of Treblinka...
And only a commercial board stands still:
"Cook only by gas"
Here is the small station of Treblinka...
Here is the small station of Treblinka...



Translated from Polish to Hebrew by Halina Birenbaum
and from Hebrew to English by Ada Holtzman

Wladyslaw Szlengel (1914-1943) was a Jewish Polish poet living in Warsaw.
He was killed in Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943.