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| THE JEWS, my brothers, will they understand me? | |
| And all that stirs within a poet’s heart? | |
| Will they believe how deep can be his sadness, | |
| How burning and incurable the smart? | |
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| A Jew has learned to think of other matters | 5 |
| Since first from out the mud he raised | |
| And stood upon his feet, and managed shortly | |
| To look like other people, God be praised! | |
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| For all eternity he had a teacher, | |
| On Sabbath days the Scripture to explain | 10 |
| And as he listened, full of deep contrition | |
| He sighed and sobbed; his tears fell down like rain. | |
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| And then he had a crazy thing, a jester | |
| A man of brains, a youth sharp-witted, quick, | |
| And in his verse he would find refreshment, | 15 |
| And with his tongue would click. | |
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| And then sometimes, he brought him of a pedlar | |
| Or else at fairs, a tale,—upon my word, | |
| It is the very drollest thing that ever | |
| Was seen or heard. | 20 |
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| One reads and laughs and then a little farther | |
| One reads and laughs till one is like to split. | |
| One laughs, because to that intent and purpose | |
| The thing was writ. | |
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| What then? Is Jewish life so cheerful? | 25 |
| Contains it then so much at which to smile? | |
| Are there so many things away from sadness | |
| The stricken heart one moment to beguile? | |
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| And do we then lament so very seldom? | |
| Let’s reckon now and see if we can tell: | 30 |
| We weep throughout the fast-day of Atonement, | |
| The rich and poor, the young and old as well. | |
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| We weep o’er Lamentations and Confession, | |
| We weep the daylight and the darkness through, | |
| And are we not to laugh a little ever? | 35 |
| Go, let us be! why that would never do! | |
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| They’ve laughed in years gone by, and in the future | |
| To laugh they will continue, just so long | |
| As there shall live a Jew—then hush, be silent | |
| My song, my melancholy song. | 40 |
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