Posted on June 16, 2025 | Poetry

In the Building

Rajzel Zychlinsky | Translated by Susan Cohen

In the building all’s being built in:
the brick,
the mortar,
the faces of the workers,
the dazzle of their teeth.
Their racket,
their talk,
their craned necks
gawping after a woman.
And on December days—
the passerby’s expectation
of happiness,
of snow.
In the building all’s being built in,
the residents who will someday live in the house
will be chased away by the racket
of winds
concealed in the wall,
the same ones that now chase the clouds
over the unfinished house.

אין דער געביידע

:אין דער געביידע װערט אַלץ אַרײנגעבױט
,די ציגל
,דער ליים
,די פּנימער פֿון די אַרבעטער
.דער בלענד פֿון זייערע ציין
,די קולות זייערע
,זייערע רייד
זייערע אױסגעדרייטע נאַקנס
.פֿאַרגאַפֿטע נאָך אַ פֿרױ
און אין דעצעמבער־טעג־־
די פֿאַרבייגייערס דערװאַרטונג
,אױף גליק
.אױף שניי
,אין דער געביידע װערט אַלץ אַריינגעבױט
און די איינװױנערס װאָס װעלן אַמאָל לעבן אין דעם הױז
זיי װעלן געטריבן װערן פֿון קולות
,פֿאַרטייעטע אין די װענט
,פֿון װינטן
די זעלבע װאָס טרייבן איצט די װאָלקנס
.איבער דעם נישט־פֿאַרענדיקטן הױז

Rajzel Zychlinsky (1910-2001) was born in Poland, where her first book appeared when she was in her twenties. She escaped from Warsaw to the Soviet Union in 1939 and later settled in New York City. Zychlinsky published seven collections of poems and received Israel’s Itzik Manger Prize for Yiddish literature. Though she knew five languages, she chose to continue writing only in the language spoken by millions who died in the gas chambers, including her sister, brother, and mother.

Susan Cohen’s poetry has been published in 32 Poems, Prairie Schooner, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Review, and Verse Daily. She is the author of three collections, mostly recently Democracy of Fire (Broadstone; 2022). Her translations of Rajzel Zychlinsky have appeared in Asymptote, Interlitq, Loch Raven Review, Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere.

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