1
- SONG OF SONGS
My love, how beautiful she is
In her everyday dress.
With a little comb on her hair.
Nobody know how beautiful she was.
Young girls of Auschwitz.
Young girls of Dachau.
Have you seen my love?
We saw her on a long journey
She no longer had her everyday dress
Or the little comb on her hair.
My love, how beautiful she is.
Fondled by her mother
And the kisses of her brother
Nobody knew how beautiful she was
Young girls of Mauthausen,
Young girls of Belsen,
Have you seen my love?
We saw her in the frozen square
A number in her white hand
And a yellow star on her heart.
2
- ANDONIS
There, on the great staircase,
On the staircase of tears.
In the dark sentry of death,
In the quarry of lamentation.
Jews and partisans are marching.
Jews and partisans are falling,
They carry a rock on their backs.
A rock, a cross of death.
It's there that Andonis hears a voice.
The voice
"Oh comrade, oh, comrade.
Help me climb the stairs."
But there, on the great staircase.
On the staircase of tears.
Help is an insult.
Compassion is a curse.
The Jew falls on the stair,
And the staircase turns red
"And you, my boy, you, come this way
Get hold of a second rock."
I lift two rocks.
I lift three rocks.
Me, my name is Andonis.
And if you are a man, well then, come here
On this marble threshing-floor.
3
- THE FUGITIVE
Yannos Ber who comes from the North
Cannot stand the barbed wire.
He takes heart he takes wing,
He runs through the villages of the valley.
Good lady, give me a piece of bread.
Give me some clothes to change.
l have to go on a long journey.
And over lakes to fly.
Wherever he goes, wherever he stops
Terror and fear beat their wings,
And a terrible voice is heard.
"Hide from the fugitive."
Christians, I am no murderer.
No wild animal to eat you
I have escaped from prison
To go back to my home.
Ah! What solitude of death
In this country of Bertolt Brecht!
Yannos is handed over to the SS
They take him now for execution.
4 - WHEN THE WAS IS OVER
Girl with the weeping eyes,
Girl with the frozen hands.
Forget me not when the war is over.
Joy of the world. come to the gate
So that we could embrace in the street.
So that we could kiss in the square.
So that we could make love in the quarry.
In the gas chambers,
On the staircase, in the observation post.
Love in the middle of noon
In all the corners of death
Till its shadow will be no more.
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