TO ITZIK FEFFER, SOVIET YIDDISH POET,
EXECUTED AUGUST 12, 1952

Why did you praise that bloody tyrant, worse
Than Hitler, Genghis Khan or Tamurlane?
Why did you foul the clear stream of your verse
With slime and muck? Was it because the strain
Of seeing fellow writers disappear
Forced you to crawl--to crawl, but crawl in vain--
And make your Muse a sacrifice to fear?

Those songs came from your mouth, not from your heart.
But Time, with its discriminating ear,
Listens instead to those with no false art
In which, once more yourself, you mourned the slain
And took your people's part, the victims' part,
Singing "I am a Jew" as your refrain
Proudly--which brought a bullet in the brain.

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