Wladyslaw Szlengel  

         An account with God

Perhaps it was a dream - but not
Perhaps a drink had dim me
We sat together God and me
And settled an Account…
         God was an elderly gentleman
         His glance full of grace

         He had a grey long beard

         But walked without an arm band

He had any “Kenkarte” of course
As He arrived straight from Paradise
But He had… - the citizenship from Uruguay
         I took out a big book
        And God - a Waterman pen

        I opened credit - faith 

       And I said… please Sir
I am 32 years old
Had satiate years or poverty
But until now my God
I had an open credit 
         They said: pray
         I prayed
         They said: fast
                      - I fasted…
Through hard days of lent
Without a drop of water in mouth
For Your great glory
And imagined laws
       In draining stripes of candles
       Un the noisy synagogues rooms
       I preyed for
       You could count my deeds
They said to me “Don't steal”
                                  I did not
They said: don't eat pork...
                          (I like) - I did not eat
They said: God wants so …
They said: This is God's way
They said: don't commit adultery …
I abstained… for God
They said don’t kill!
                  I didn’t kill
Don't have any God above me
                                - I had not…
          There are many agreeably feasts,
          There are various difficult feats
          Ten times a year I was told to remember
I was told to sit in baize
To drink bitters to eat matzah …  
To make various penances
And to neglect the work
With tongs I pressed the hands
I devoured books at nights
And mortified the body
Excuse me, I ask – what for?
         I used to say: "God will help"
         I used to say: "God will rescue"
         I believed: God is with me
         I used to say: and so on...
So look, look into the book
It is clear, obviously 
Look! The page of Your merits
In relation to me - is clean…
                 They hit me in the face
                - I do not run away
                 Like a tracked animal from a hole to a hole
                 I wait...but You...nothing
I have hunger, cold, yearnings
The way becomes wilder, more distant
Empty - all around, dead
But I don’t cry...I am waiting…
               So, to the winds are thrown
               The begging, fasting and lamentation
               And hundred thousand prayers
               And half a million “Amen”
What you give me today
For all my deeds
The block…
The tin-can ... The Umschlagplatz
These food bony - or Treblinkas ?
                      Do You still waiting that
                      After tomorrow like in Testament
                      When going to the Prussian gas
                       I will still say “Amen”?
So say something, please say -     
Take out the account from concealment
The books are open - look! -
Partner of my life…
                    And the gentle, elderly Man
                    With whom I drank at the table
                    Took a pencil in the hand and said...  
                    And here I awoke
Was it usual dream? -
Or did the drink tormented me
But to this day I do not know how  

The account had ended