5. Ghetto — the poem was written before the War and the establishment of the ghetto in Vilna. The concept is used here as a metaphor for confined Jewish existence, based on the Medieval ghettos. [BACK]

6. Shul-yard — the complex of courtyards in Vilna containing dozens of synagogues and prayer houses, including the "Gaon Shul." The Gaon of Vilna, Rabbi Eliahu, lived in the eighteenth century. [BACK]

7. Irtysh — major Siberian river. [BACK]

8. Taiga — evergreen forests of sub-Arctic Siberia. [BACK]

9. Kirghizes — a Mongolian people, speaking a Turkic language, dwelling chiefly in West Central Asia. [BACK]

10. Yehoash — Solomon Bloomgarden (1872-1927), major Yiddish-American poet, master of impressionist nature poetry. Sutzkever taught his poetry and organized a Yehoash exhibition in the Vilna Ghetto. [BACK]

11. Tallis — a white prayer shawl with black stripes worn by Jewish men. [BACK]

12. The poem refers to the outbreak of World War II in Europe. Vilna was spared until June 1941. [BACK]

13. Yesterday — reference to the Soviet period in Vilna (May 1940-June 1941). [BACK]

14. Sheygets — Gentile boy or young man. [BACK]

15. Sh'ma (or Shema) — Jewish profession of faith, always recited before death. [BACK]

16. Stormtroopers — The poet was taken to an SS outfit where teenage Germans specialized in abusing and torturing Jews. [BACK]

17. This cycle includes parts of a long poem, unfinished and partly lost. We have decided to keep the sub-cycles as they were published. The sub-cycle, "My Mother," was published in the book The Fortress (New York, 1945) and in the collected works. The sub-cycle, "From the Poem Three Roses," was published from old manuscripts only in 1979. In the larger framework, the poet also planned to include the poems "A Wagon of Shoes," "My Every Breath Is a Curse," and "Black Thorns.'' [BACK]

18. Mogen Dovid — the Star of David, the Jewish symbol used by the Nazis as a mark of humiliation, to be worn by every Jew. The poem refers to Jews identifying other Jews in the service of the Nazis. [BACK]

19. Siddur — prayer book. [BACK]

20. Challah — braided egg bread, especially for the sabbath. [BACK]

21. Khupa — wedding canopy. [BACK]

22. Amsterdam, Worms, Livorno — places famous for Jewish books that were written or published there. Madrid — symbol for the Jewish cultural center in Medieval Spain. YIVO — Jewish Scientific Institute, founded in Vilna in 1925. Under the Nazis, Sutzkever worked at the YIVO, which was turned into a Nazi research center for Judaic studies under the direction of the Rosenberg Staff. He was instrumental in stealing important manuscripts from the collection and hiding them in ghetto cellars. [BACK]

23. Teacher Mira — Mira Bernstein, well-known teacher in Vilna, organized the school in the ghetto. [BACK]

24. Sholem Aleichem — (1859-1916) classical Yiddish fiction writer, famous for his humor and popular style. [BACK]

25. Hirsh Lekert — (1879-1902) a shoemaker and Bund activist in Vilna who organized an armed attack to liberate political prisoners. He assassinated the Russian governor of Vilna for flogging Socialists after a May Day demonstration and was hanged. Lekert became a hero of the Jewish labor movement and self-defense. [BACK]

26. Gershteyn — well-known music teacher and leader of the "Gershteyn Choir," organized a choir in the ghetto as well. [BACK]

27. Peretz, Y. L. — (1851-1915) classical Yiddish writer. The poem refers to Peretz's story, "Three Gifts," celebrating Jewish martyrdom. [BACK]

28. Snatchers — Lithuanians employed by the Nazis to catch given numbers of Jews for forced labor. [BACK]

29. Levi Yitzhok's melody — Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev (1740-1810), famous Hassidic Rebbe, or dynastic leader, argued with God in Yiddish and composed the one-syllable tune: du-du-du-du ... ("Thou — thou — thou ..."). [BACK]

30. Siberia — The poet spent his childhood in Siberia where his father died (see the poem. "Siberia"). [BACK]

31. Rom Printers — publishing house and printing press famous for its classical editions of the Babylonian Talmud, distributed all over the Jewish Diaspora. [BACK]

32. Yerushalayim — Jerusalem. [BACK]

33. Malinas — hiding places in the ghetto. [BACK]

34. HGRA — acronym for the Gaon Rabbi Eliahu. The letter H by itself represents God. [BACK]

35. Synagogue Yard — a complex of courtyards containing dozens of synagogues. The Great Synagogue was a Medieval fortress built several stories below ground (see note 6). [BACK]

36. Last barricade — the barricade on Straszun Street 6 where resistance to the Germans was staged. The Germans retreated from the ghetto and the partisans were able to escape through the canals to the forest. [BACK]

37. Mishkan — tabernacle, a sanctuary tent erected by the Children of Israel in the Sinai Desert. [BACK]

38. Mama-loshn — mother tongue, an affectionate name for Yiddish. [BACK]

39. Maharal — Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague (1525-1609) who, according to legend, created the Golem, an artificial man of clay who was supposed to defend the Jews from their enemies. [BACK]

40. Shekhina — the feminine, maternal aspect of God, Divine Presence protecting men. [BACK]

41. Elul — Hebrew month of mourning before the High Holidays; here September 1943. [BACK]

42. Resurrection — the poem refers to Sutzkever's return to Vilna immediately after its "liberation." [BACK]

43. Tekiya, Shevorim — the blowing of the Shofar on the Jewish High Holidays, especially after Yom Kippur. [BACK]

44. Allusion to Ezekiel 16:6 — "In your blood shall you live." [BACK]

45. In the Chariot of Fire — the first book of poems written by Sutzkever upon his arrival in Israel in 1947. [BACK]

46. Shabazi — prolific Yemenite poet (17th century), wrote Jewish liturgical poetry in Hebrew and Arabic. [BACK]

47. See note 29. [BACK]

48. See note 10. [BACK]

49. Kulbak — Moyshe Kulbak (1896-1940), beloved Vilna Yiddish poet, perished in the Soviet Union. [BACK]

50. Yehudah Ha-Levi — Hebrew poet and philosopher in Spain (1075-1141), who wrote the "Zionide," expressing Jewish longing for Zion, eventually sailed to the Holy Land, which he never reached. On this journey, he wrote "poems of the sea." [BACK]

51. Eilat — Israeli port on the Red Sea. [BACK]

52. The Ascent of Scorpions — rock above a deep crater in the Negev with a road winding down. [BACK]

53. Wadi — a dry riverbed filled only in the rainy season. [BACK]

54. Let us all, all together — Yiddish song of welcome in which the name of a guest, or bride and bridegroom at a wedding, is inserted. [BACK]

55. Gediminas — founder of the Lithuanian grand duchy and its capital Vilnius. According to legend, builder of the fortress on Castle Mountain. [BACK]

56. Eternal Garments — euphemism for shrouds. [BACK]

57. Shchara — a river in Byelorussia. [BACK]

58. Blind Milton — This section includes poems from several books: Ode to the Dove, In the Sinai Desert, Oasis and the "Closed Cycle" from the second volume of Sutzkever's collected poems. [BACK]

59. Ha-Levi — Reference to Yehuda Ha-Levi's "Zionide." See note 50. [BACK]

60. Else Lasker-Schüler — (1876-1945) German Expressionist poetess who spent her last years in Jerusalem. [BACK]

61. Blue Piano — Mein Blaues Klavier (1943), the only book of poems published by Else Lasker-Schüler in Jerusalem. [BACK]

62. Winter Night — reference to Sutzkever's journey through German territory, involving the miraculous crossing of a minefield, on the way to the partisan airstrip where he was taken to Moscow. [BACK]

63. Square Letters — the holy Hebrew letters, the typeface brought back to the Holy Land from the Babylonian exile. The "square letters" are also used in Yiddish literature, endowing it with a sense of holiness. [BACK]

64. Zeykher Le-Ghetto — Hebrew: "In memory of the ghetto," an allusion to Zeykher le-khurban, "In memory of the destruction." [BACK]

65. Blessed are... — Ashrey t'mimey derekh, blessing to be recited before a voyage. [BACK]

66. Lulav — a palm tree leaf used in the Sukkot service. [BACK]

67. Bris — (or: Brith), circumcision ceremony on the eighth day after the birth of a boy. [BACK]

68. Aberdeen — in Hong Kong. [BACK]

69. Shekhina — See note 40. [BACK]

70. Lithuania, homeland mine — the opening words of the famous epic, Pan Tadeusz, by the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, a native of the Vilna area. [BACK]

71. Body-burners — Jewish prisoners forced by the Germans to burn in the pits of Ponar the bodies of about 100,000 Jews shot there. [BACK]

72. Leyzer Volf — original Yiddish poet (1910-1943), neighbor and friend of Sutzkever (died in exile in Soviet Central Asia). [BACK]

73. Rokhl Sutzkever — (1905-1942) a talented painter and the poet's relative, was a member of the group of painters and Yiddish poets known as "Young Vilna." [BACK]

74. Needleshine — In the first days of the German occupation of Vilna in July 1941, Sutzkever hid in a narrow crawlspace under a thin roof where he pierced a hole for light and wrote poetry. He returned after the liberation of Vilna in July 1944. [BACK]

75. Leyvik — (1888-1962) major American Yiddish poet. [BACK]

76. In September 1939, Poland was defeated and divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Vilna was returned to Lithuania (independent until May 1940, then occupied by the Soviets and, in June 1941, by the Germans). In the interim period, many refugees fled illegally to Vilna. [BACK]

77. See note 6. [BACK]

78. Gaon's Prayerhouse in the Vilna Synagogue Yard, established by Eliahu (1720-1797), famous Vilna Gaon (genius in Talmudic learning). [BACK]

79. "Leym" means clay, as was much of the soil around Vilna. [BACK]

80. Isaac-Meyer Dick (1814-1893), prolific Yiddish story writer of the Haskalah period who lived and published in Vilna. In his Yiddish, Dick used many "Germanisms" for loftiness of style. [BACK]