Ein Psalm aus Babylon, zu Klagen (A Psalm to Lament Babylon)
Listen to the poem in German
Peter Kein — Original Text (ca. 1941-1944)
Ein Psalm aus Babylon, zu klagen
Unter den Mauern Babylons
sassen wir und weinten,
wenn wir der Heimat gedachten.
Heimat!
Das ist das Rauschen der Bäume in den Gärten
Ach, sie sind gefällt
Heimat!
Das ist der Atem, der aus der breiten Brust des Stroms quillt,
Ach, er ist verdorrt
Heimat!
Das sind schweigenden Fenster in alten Prunkfassaden
Ach, sie sind geschleift.
Wenn ich dein vergesse, süsses Gestern,
so werde meiner Hoffnung vergessen.
Unter den Mauern Babylons
sassen wir und weinten,
wenn wir um uns blickten.
Schutthalden und verpestete Hügel
Leid und Verbrechen wandeln Arm in Arm durch zerklüftete Strassen
denn ein ziellos suchender Wahnwitz
schlitzte der Erde den Leib auf
und wühlt in ihren Gedärmen
nach einem Orakel
Unter den Mauern Babylons
sassen wir und weinten
wenn wir der Zukunft gedachten
Nicht zur Rückkehr löst sich die Fessel von unseren Füssen
aber wie Sand vor dem Herbststurm
werden wir nach den vier Winden wirbeln,
jeder einsam in feindliche Wüsten.
English Translation by Sandra Alfers
A Psalm to Lament Babylon
Under the walls of Babylon
we sat and cried
whenever we remembered home.
Home!
That is the rustling of the trees in the gardens
Ach, they are no more
Home!
That is the breath streaming from the wide breast of the river
Ach, it is withered!
Home!
That is the silent windows in old grandiose edifices
Ach, they have been sanded.
When I forget you, sweet yesterday,
[I] will forget my hopeUnder the walls of Babylon
we sat and cried
whenever we looked around us.
Piles of rubble and contaminated hills
Pain and suffering walk arm in arm through ragged streets
because an aimlessly wandering lunacy
slit open the body of the earth
and rummages through its bowels
for an oracle
Under the walls of Babylon
we sat and cried
whenever we thought of the future
Not for our return will the shackle be removed from our feet
but like sand before the fall storm
we will be swirled into the direction of the four winds
each one alone into hostile deserts.
Author Notes
A Jewish Czech man, Kien was born in 1919 in Varnsdorf (current day Czech Republic). Forced to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1941, there he became deputy director of the camp’s drawing office, and several of his sketches depicting daily life and poems survived the war. He ultimately died of disease in Auschwitz in 1944.
Historical Context
The selected poem, titled “Ein Psalm aus Babylon, zu klagen,” was written during his imprisonment at Theresienstadt. Directly invoking religious imagery, one of the repeated lines is a slight alteration of a line from Psalm 137 in the Book of Psalms, which describes the destruction of Jerusalem, with his chosen alterations (namely replacing “waters” with “walls”) describing the physical layout of Theresienstadt. While the poem invokes religion and nature to describe a sense of home and the past, it is also clear that these things are no more. Furthermore, the religious imagery could be seen as a critique of God, as the last part of the poem, in which the “we” that Kien speaks of “will be swirled into the directions of the four winds / each one alone into hostile deserts” references a passage in Genesis. While the original spoke of God’s protection, Kien’s poem ends on a note of hostility and moving into a bleak future. In conveying his lamentation through a psalm, Kien expresses longing for a now-unattainable past, despair looking toward the future, and even something resembling blasphemy in potentially criticizing an absent God.
Sources
Helga Wolfenstein King & Peter Kien / Petr Kien – Holocaust Art & Artifacts. https://helgaking.com/holocaust/#peter. Accessed 7 Dec. 2021.