Auger Shaped

Leo Belmont

1900

I want to be a Pole. You have my word!
I want to reach the peak of Polishness
But I can find no way to manage:
They always shout: “You’re a jew!”
When I defend the jews from slander,
Hoping to secure a life for them,
Usually I hear a sidelong whisper:
“Ah, what must it be like to be a jew!”
When instead I denounce the faults of jews,
When I preach that they should be ashamed,
“An antisemite?,” they mutter at once.
“Oh, this one, too, is surely a jew!”
If at times I criticize a Polish fault,
Or offend some Christian myth,
They exclaim with disgust: “Some Pole that is!
“He’s only a most ordinary jew!”
When I admire Polish ideals,
When I bristle at the Prussian expulsions,1
They say, “He’s of a different religion,
“He’s not a Pole, but a Jew!”
When I run to a priest and accept baptism,
Wishing just once to reach the peak of grace,
They shout: “But he’s of a different race,
“He’s only a converted jew!”
Thus the hydra of doubt keeps troubling me,
Poisoning my woeful life,
That I am neither dog nor otter,
But some poorly shaped auger,
A Jewish Pole, a Polish jew!

Translated by
Madeline G.
Levine
.

Notes

[The mass expulsion of Poles with Austrian or Russian citizenship from the German-controlled Prussian Partition of Poland, 1885–1890.—Trans.]

Credits

Leo Belmont, “Nakształt świdra” [Auger Shaped], Rymy i Rytmy: Wybór poezyj, vol. 1 (Warsaw: Jan Fiszer, 1900), pp. 344–45.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.

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Creator Bio

Leo Belmont

1865–1941

Born Leopold (Leyb) Blumental in Warsaw, Leo Belmont, as he was most widely known, was an accomplished writer, translator, playwright, and social activist. Belmont was an accomplished Esperantist: the first to write Esperanto poetry, he was also an advocate for the annual World Esperanto Congress, as well as a frequent orator and essayist. He studied law at the University of Warsaw and wrote frequently in Russian, Polish, and Esperanto journals—such as Vestnik Znaniya, Izraelita, Wolne Słowo, and Pola Esperantisto—on humanitarian and progressive subjects, arguing against Polish antisemitism and Jewish exceptionalism. His other known pseudonyms include Leon Bielski, Acosta Dolinow, Kazimierz Domowicz, Fortado, and Lew Gorskij.

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