Churchbells

Listen to the poem in English

Churchbells — Read by Greg Nedved

Samuel Hoffenstein— Original Text

When I was a little lad,
Sunday churchbells made me sad,
Made me wish I hadn’t been
Born a Jew and deep in sin,
For as many a Christian boy
Told me with unChristly joy
I had personally done
A thing to blacken sky and sun,
In hate and malice sacrificed
His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
And though, since I was barely ten,
I couldn’t quite remember when
I had done the hellish thing,
I used to hear the churchbells ring,
And dogs of terror scampered blind

Through Ghetto alleys of my mind,

And barked in bells from Christian spires,
And ran in rings ’round Christian fires,
And crucifixes, wild of eye,
On their single legs strode by.
I watched the people, still and strange,
Passing in their Sunday change,
Knife-lipped women, rock-faced men,
Seemingly the same as when
I saw them every other day,
Yet skies and seas and lands away,
And felt forlorn and child-alone,
And felt that way among my own –
No Gentile dark with love of Christ
Whom I and mine had sacrificed,
No Jew with skullcap on his head
Mumbling something Moses said –
A leaf that fluttered from no tree,
Nor came to rest, nor yet was free,
A tree that walked, but never grew,
A living semblance, but a Jew
Lost in the United States,
Lost behind the Ghetto gates,
No bird, yet wingless, lost in air,
Along and alien everywhere.
Now I am a large and mellow,
Mild and philosophic fellow
Of amiable thought and speech,
Sweetly disposed toward all and each,
A stanch disciple of Saint Paul,
A friend of sparrows as they fall,
Contained, reflective and resigned,
Of equable Franciscan mind,
Content with almost anything,
I hear the Sunday churchbells ring
Upon a morning broad and bright,
And think the little lad was right
And will be till the gods unite
And One God says, “Let there be light!”

Samuel Hoffenstein (Oct. 8, 1890 – Oct. 6, 1947) was born in Lithuania; his family emigrated to the US in 1894. He graduated from Lafayette College, PA, then worked as a reporter for a local paper. By 1913, he had become the drama critic for the New York Sun. He also wrote articles for the magazine Vanity Fair and the New York Tribune newspaper. He married Edith Morgan in 1927. His first book of poetry, Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing, came out in 1928. In 1931, Hoffenstein settled in Los Angeles, working as a screenwriter for Paramount Studios until 1936, then for 20^th Century Fox from 1941-1947. During that time, he was employed as a scriptwriter for over 30 movies. He was twice a co-nominee for an Oscar: for “Best Adaptation” for the 1931 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and for “Best Screenplay” for the 1944 film Laura. Hoffenstein’s revision of the screenplay for Laura – in which he turned the novel’s narrator, Waldo Lydecker, into the screen character portrayed by Clifton Webb – caused 20^th Century Fox to upgrade the movie from its original B status to an A picture. Other notable film credits for Hoffenstein include The Miracle Man (1932), Phantom of the Opera (1943), The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Tales of Manhattan (1942). He also collaborated with Cole Porter and Kenneth Webb in composing the musical score for The Gay Divorce (1933), which in 1934 was turned into the film The Gay Divorcee, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Hoffenstein died in Los Angeles. His second book of verse, Pencil in the Air, was published to critical acclaim three days after his death.