Ben-Oni (Son of Sorrow)

Siegfried Kapper

1846

I do not lift my supplicating hands,
O King, O Lord, O Father, yon on high,
To You whose throne dwells in the starry lands,
I neither plead nor yet Your might defy.
I do not ask of You to end my woeful bane,
To guide my steps, to aid me to return
To the distant shrine for which I long in vain,
Where the Star of Zion ne’er again shall burn.
For the Rose of Sharon I no longer pine;
Nor for the fruits from a sloping Jordan hill,
Its milk and honey I gladly will decline,
Its pleasant days, and nights so cool and still.
My plaintive prayer is free from all regret,
For wasted joys and sweetness spent in vain,
If but for once in life I could forget
The bitter drops of my fellow-men’s disdain.

Translated by
Roderick A.
Ginsburg
.

Credits

Siegfried Kapper, "Ben-Oni (Son of Sorrow)," trans. Roderick A. Ginsburg, from In Search of Freedom, ed. Guido Kisch (London: E. Goldston, 1949), p. 208. Used with permission of the translator's estate.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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Creator Bio

Siegfried Kapper

1821–1879

Siegfried (Isaac Salomon) Kapper was a Czech and German poet, writer, translator, and physician. Born on the outskirts of Prague, where he studied philosophy, Kapper received a doctorate in medicine from the University of Vienna. A medical officer during the 1848 revolution in Vienna, he later served as a representative in the Austrian parliament. Kapper was a leading figure in the Czech–Jewish assimilation movement and the first Jewish writer to publish in the Czech language. His works include revolutionary poems, political essays, writings on Slavic culture, as well as translations of poetry and folk songs.

Related Guide

Poetry, 1750–1880

Jewish poets throughout Europe and the Americas created in the languages of their native tongues. From folk-song lyrics to wedding riddles and synagogue hymns, poetry, even in translation, allows us access to voices and moments, particular and collective, that we would otherwise not hear. 

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