“About Jews,” a poem in Russian by Boris Slutsky, translated by Olga Dumer

About Jews

by Boris Slutsky 

Jews do not plough or harvest.

Jews make their living by bargains.

Jews are deceitful hucksters.

Jews speak in a weird jargon.

They are nasty people, those Jews

And as soldiers they are no use:

While Ivan is fighting the war,

Abe is stashing cash in the store.

I have heard this since I was a child,

Now nothing is left of my youth;

Yet for me there is no exile

From this infamous clamor: “Jews!” 

I have not sold anything, ever

I have not stolen anything, ever 

Yet, this race of mine, like a curse,

Was branded on me by birth.

Bullets spared me in the field

As proof of this ultimate truth: 

When they say “Jews never were killed!

They all came back home – cunning Jews!” 

(Translated from the Original Russian by Olga Dumer)

Про Евреев

Евреи хлеба не сеют, 

Евреи в лавках торгуют, 

Евреи раньше лысеют, 

Евреи больше воруют. 

Евреи - люди лихие, 

Они солдаты плохие: 

Иван воюет в окопе, 

Абрам торгует в рабкопе. 

Я все это слышал с детства, 

Скоро совсем постарею, 

Но все никуда не деться 

От крика: «Евреи, евреи!» 

Не торговавши ни разу, 

Не воровавши ни разу, 

Ношу в себе, как заразу, 

Проклятую эту расу. 

Пуля меня миновала, 

Чтоб говорили нелживо: 

«Евреев не убивало! 

Все воротились живы!»

___


Poet's Bio

Boris Slutsky (1919 -1986) is a Soviet poet. He was born in Tula but spent his childhood and youth in Kharkov, Ukraine. In 1937 he entered the Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow. He was a member of a group of young poets who called themselves "the Generation of 1940." In 1941-1945 he served in an infantry platoon. Slutsky's first book of poetry, "Memory," was published in 1957. Many of the poems were about World War II, and Slutsky became one of the most prominent Soviet poets of the War Generation. Slutsky was often criticized for his unpoetic and conversational style. Slutsky translated Yiddish poets Leib Kvitko, Yakov Sternberg, and others into Russian. In 1963, "The Poets of Israel " was edited as the first anthology of Israeli poetry under Slutsky's guidance. 

Translator's Bio 

Olga Dumer was born and educated at Moscow Pedagogical University, Russia. She has earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees in English Language and Literature. She obtained her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. After migrating to the USA, she has worked as an Associate Professor of English/ English as a Second Language and Linguistics in Southern California. She has also worked as a freelance translator and interpreter. Her work has been published in Four Centuries: Russian Poetry in Translation. Olga lives in San Diego, CA.