Emigrants Monologue

'Ich habe keine Heimat gefunden' -Mascha Kaléko
(I haven't found any home)

Emigrants Monologue
Mascha Kaléko
1938

I have one, a beautiful fatherland!
So sang already the refugee Heine
That was his stand on the Rhine
That is my own, on yellowing sand.

We all had one once! (see above)
It was devoured by the plague, scattered in a storm.
O little rose of the heathland
The strength of love tore you like that.

The nightingales are turning numb,
They saw it in at the safest abode.
And only the vultures scream
Well above the gravelines.

It will never be the same, whatever was,
Whenever it will be different than it is.
Even if the tiny bell of love will ring,
Even if the swords cling no more.

I feel sometimes as though
That heart in me, is shattered into pieces.
Sometimes I'm so homesick,
I just don't know, after what....