Shotns
Analysis and contextual notes by D. Zisl Slepovitch.
All songs transcribed, translated, scored, arranged, and produced by Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch.
Biography
Sima S. was born in Vilna, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania) in 1924 and grew up in a rich Jewish cultural environment, attending Hebrew and Yiddish schools and participating in drama and music despite antisemitic harassment. After Soviet and then Lithuanian control in 1939, her family briefly relocated before returning to Vilnius, where she performed in Yiddish theater. Following the German invasion in 1941, her father and brother were taken in a roundup and never seen again, and she was imprisoned, ghettoized, and forced to sew German uniforms while remaining active in youth cultural life and aiding the underground. She was later deported through multiple labor camps, including Vivikonna, Vaivara, Narwa, and Kiviõli, where she endured harsh conditions, received help from Dutch prisoners of war, witnessed violence by Kommandant Helmut Schnabel, and met Hirsh Glick, whose songs helped sustain morale; she was ultimately assigned to a limestone quarry before being transferred to Goldfilz.
Shotns (Shadows)
Ikh blondzhe in geto.
Kh’kler: mentshn haven hin un her,
Yeder mentsh iz zayn bager
Vert fun goyrl getribn.
Nor vos zhe kumt aroys derfun?
Khotsh in lebn alts geton,
Host geyogt zikh nokh der zun
Un in khoyshekh farblibn.
Du gist a freg,
Iz di velt bloyz a milkhl?
Tsu vos dos geyeg,
Ot dos narishe shpilkhl?
Vayl mir zaynen vi shotns,
Blondzhen shtil durkh der nakht,
Vayl in lebn on likht
Veyst nit ver vu er krikht,
Fremd zayn eygn gezikht…
Yede tir, yeder lodn
Iz far undz haynt farmakht…
Verst fun umet geyogt,
Keyner fregt vos dikh plogt,
Tsi a harts in dir shlogt!
Zukhst dayn gezikht, dayn eygn ikh
Nor kenst es nit gefinen.
Kumst mit der nakht
Un vest in nakht tserinen.
Vayl mir zaynen vi shotns
Vos di nakht hot tseshpreyt,
Nor zi eyne farshteyt
Vu ahin yeder geyt,
Ver tsum lebn—ver (tsum) teyt.
Haynt host getrofn mikh do, fraynt.
Zest mayn freyd, vos hot geshaynt,
Shoyn farshvenkt fun geviter.
Kh’bin elnt, hefkerdik aleyn,
Afn veg—a hoyler shteyn,
Keyner hert nit mayn geveyn,
Keynem art nit mayn tsiter.
Vi oft ikh farges,
Az in mentsh kh’bin gerotn:
Mir dukht kh’bin a mes
Oder gor bloyz a shotn.
S’veln shotns farshvindn,
Vest in groykayt zen bald,
Vi fun shotn vos falt
Teylt zikh oys a geshtalt,
Vi di zun hel tseshtralt.
I am wandering around the ghetto.
I see as people are running here and there,
Each person is what they desire
and is driven by their fate.
Now, what comes of it?
Although everything has been done in life
You are chasing after the sun
and remained in the dark.
And you ask yourself:
Is the world a windmill?
What’s the use of this chasing,
This silly game?
Because we are like shadows
Wandering quietly through the night,
Because in a life without light
You don’t know who is crawling, and where,
Even your own face seems foreign…
Every door, every window
is shut for us today…
If you are in despair,
No one will ask what troubles you,
Whether the heart is still beating in you!
You’re looking for your face, your own self,
But you can’t find it.
You arrive with the night,
And in the night, you disappear.
Because we are like shadows
that the night has spread out,
Only she understands
Where everyone goes,
Some to life, and some to death.
You met me here today, my friend.
See my joy that is shining,
It has already been swept away by the storm.
I am alone and lost,
An empty stone on the road,
No one hears my cry,
No one cares that I am shaking.
Oh, how often I forget
That I was once a human:
It seems to me I’m a corpse—
Or just a shadow.
Shadows will disappear,
Soon in the grayness you’ll see:
From the falling shadow,
An image will separate,
Brightly lit up, like the sun.