«- Хорошо, если выстрелят в рот.
  - Это, доченька, как повезет.»

- טוב כשיורים בפה.
- אבל
זה בתי, כבר תלוי במזל...

"If they shoot you in the mouth, it's good maybe…"
"It depends on your luck, my baby…"

What is death? Why does one man kill another? There was no answer. But I couldn't but thought about this.


20.
She was swinging on the wind,
With her hung down head.
All the words stuck inside,
And I couldn't say that.
I just wanted to run
Very fast far away,
But she was there hung,
She was hung, anyway.
And the branches were groaning.
With the wind they were moaning..

I saw the hanged woman for the first time.


21.
In the burdock we found a loaf of bread,
It was wrapped in the leaves,
And it swelled in the rain
But the bread that we ate
At that day, was not bad,
And we ate it again and again.
Then we were really fed up with that.
Only later we saw it… we found her dead.
In the bushes behind the house
She was lying with open mouth.

It had been raining for two days. We were very hungry. First we saw the bread. And later, when we were full and made some steps away, we found the woman. She was beautiful, and she was dead.


22.
This house was without doors,
Without roof,
Without floors.
All the people left it.
This house was killed
With a white cup on the floor,
And a blue band at the door.
And now black scary owls
Fly into the gaps and the holes.
We are afraid to come close,
Because no one now knows,
Maybe the wind here sighs and blows,
Or maybe the blind man was right,
He said: - a goblin's crying here at night.

Even grown ups bypassed this destroyed house on the hill.


23.
The leaves will crack,
The clouds will crack.
Something will happen,
The night's so black.
The wind spins the dust
It is flying here.
And I am tortured by fear.


24.
A ruddy cat has five blind kittens,
They want to eat, and they start eating.
They push each other,
They cuddle to mother.
And she licks their dirty tails,
And she tells them different tales.
I look at them, and then go to bed,
And fall asleep next to mother-cat.

When we found food we fed the homeless cat, and she allowed us to look at her kittens.


25.
The water is warm in this barrel so old.
But in the bottom the water's cold.
My stomach's aching, the pain's strong,
But I want to sit here all day long.
The frogs are jumping inside-out,
And Mary calls me: Let's get out.
Let's jump into the burdocks, get there dry.
And then in my eyes small flies fly.
Cause I'm hungry, but I don't cry.

When rainwater got warm in the barrel, we got inside it. But after this we had a sharp feeling of hunger.


26.
At the end of the road we found a ball,
And a notebook, and also a small ruddy doll,
She lost her leg, but not this was so bad:
We had no home to take all that.
We put these things under the stairway.
Covered with something and went away.
And not to look behind we tried.
But tears dropped; we probably cried.

Sometimes we found "valuable" things, but where could we keep them?


27.
I gather leaves into a bunch.
I make a crown nice and small.
But flowers - I never touch.
I don't pick flowers at all.
I simply look into flowers' eyes,
And feel as if I fly in the skies.

I felt it several times, and only with flowers.


28.
They shot into a house, and then
It couldn't become the house again.
It turned into ash and fire.
The sky above was puffing and sighing.
Only a burned snail stayed on the gate,
And then it got very dark and late.
People went home, and turned off the light.
We saw there something burning inside,
As if many shades burst into it,
And the huge candle was lit.

The house was burning so quickly, that it looked like a horrible fairy tale.


29.
People went home,
Even Germans weren't here.
The sky got so black.
It is full of huge fear.
Every shed and each house
Is strange, is not ours.
I want my dad to come here,
And hold me tight.
We could've been together
If they'd killed us that night.

Especially in the evenings we felt scared and homeless.


30.
Pears and plums are falling down.
We eat as many as we want now.
And the rest we can put into the sack.
It is so good! Our luck is back!
But the bees are annoying, fly onto the smell.
They bite us, my poor face started to swell.

I lowered my puffed up face into the barrel with water. Since then I have never waved off the bees.


31.
The dust on the road
Is getting cold,
Our feet are cool –
No shoes at all.
And the grass is getting
So cold and wet.
We are hurrying now
As we want to get
To Susharnya*,
The ground is warmer here,
It smells like a garden.
The lime tree is near.
We have here a sack,
It is full of dry grass.
And a piece of pinched bread
Is there, waiting for us.


*Susharnia was the place where fruit was dried. Over the pit with smoldering logs the settlers put dry branches, and scattered plums over it. The ground above the pit warmed up very well.


32.
This mouse, perhaps, escaped from the cat.
He was a little alive, not very dead.
He peeped so gently, this poor little thing,
He breathed, and breathed. It was hard, I think.
I wrapped him into the leaf - warm and strong.
And carried, and carried him all day long.
I gave him some water; I gave him a crumb,
And he became quicker, but yet couldn't run.
But I did not hold him inside, anyway.
If you just want, then, please, run away.
But he didn't want, did not do all this,
He only ate, washed himself and breathed.


33.
Candy wrappers are thrown
Everywhere on the ground.
We've spun in them the stones
That we have just found.
- We don’t have those,
But we have these,
Come and buy people-ants and bees.
What's for you, that sour and blue?
And for you is that, so sweet and red?
It is birthday party we're playing today:
Come and buy!
Do you hear? Hey!
And if the German stands nearby,
Let him swallow all and die.

We found many nice candy wrappers in the garbage and made a holiday on the stump.


34
Those Germans, they got so stupid, indeed,
They shoot into the sky just without need,
As well as they shot into people before,
What are they doing these stupid things for?
If the bullet reaches the sun one day,
And the fire from it then flows away,
And the day becomes as dark as the night,
And the birds stop twittering, will it be right?

The sky seemed to me a fragile dome. And everything was underneath: stars, moon, clouds and sun. And all this was sacred.


35.
Uncle Mitya cried: - The raid! Run away!
Where to run: under a bed, into the hay?
Inside the fence there is a crack.
Let's jump into it and don't look back.
Here in the burdocks, no one comes around.
And when it gets dark we will get out.


36.
I'm beating my legs one by one,
And I'm heating myself, poor one.
And the more I feel pity and sad,
The frost gets more cruel and bad.


After the night's frost the ground became warmer just about noon. And we were barefoot.


37.
The rain stopped, and the little fly
Is scratching her paunch; is getting dry.
I don't even send this fly away.
I'm zooming and trembling the same way,
And I'm also getting dry
Exactly the same as this little fly.
.

38.
I want to sit in a white warm bath,
And drink white milk from a clear white glass,
And in fluffy shirt, so clean and white
I want on dad's shoulder to sleep all the night.
I want so many things, it's right.
But the holes in the shed's walls are so big,
And the wind blows inside, and hurts as a prick.


39.
It is so bad,
It is so sad,
The jump rope's here,
I know that.
But to jump now
I don't even try.
How can I?
I just look, and cry.

I was so weak that I couldn’t even walk. Mary hung a jump rope with red handles on the branch and went to look for something to eat. I was lying on the ground under the bush and crying. I wanted to jump so much.


40.
They are not going now,
my little legs,
I cannot even rise up
and be so strong.
And Mary, my sister,
put me on her back.
She carries and carries
me all day long.
She tries to be careful,
 tries not to sway,
But she goes and sways
 till the end of the day.

When I got absolutely weak from the hunger, my sister Mary carried me on her back and didn't leave me as some people advised her.


41.
Why should we sit here
In this cage with thorns?
Germans make us suffer,
They do what they want.
And why do other girls
In the big and broad streets
Play, run and laugh,
And with mothers kiss?
I will ask someone great,
The main one and strong:
- Do you think it is right?
- Don't you think it is wrong?
And then I will see,
What he will say to me.

From the concentration camp yard fenced in with barbed wire the street with its ordinary life was seen.


42
The bug was crawling
Along my hand –
How many legs!
What a funny head!
Two whiskers are big,
The eyes're like beads.
He didn't want to crawl
Anymore this way.
He flew away.
And I would like to do that,
If only the wings I had.
The German on the tower
would never
Hear me, as I fly in the air.
And the thorns that have
sharp iron ends
No longer would hurt my hands.


43.
In the pool I found a butterfly.
It didn't breathe; prepared to die.
I pushed my palm below it,
I started blowing, doing the wind.
I was waving my hand to let it fly:
Fly far away and not to die.

The German was sitting near.
He was looking there and here.
He was not scary, even a bit.
He came up close and wanted to sit.
Then he sat down next to me on the stone:
Perhaps he forgot that he was a German.

The childish face with blue eyes dissipated my fear of the German.


44.
"If they shoot you in the mouth, it's good maybe…"
"It depends on your luck, my baby…"

They posted us to the banister of the bridge over the river Bug; aimed, shot.

===================
Aisensharf Alla
(Varfolomeyeva Galina Naumovna) – 1936

This is the seventh book of the poetess. She graduated from Medical College and the Institute of Literature of the Writers' Union of the USSR. She worked in Moldova and Siberia. In 1988 she came to Israel. She now lives in Ashkelon. Alla Aisensharf is a member of the Writers' Union of Israel.