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.
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