Below is a German poem I used to love as a teenager, with a professional translation and my own very loose one. ∼ Er ist’s ∼ Frühling läßt sein blaues BandWieder flattern durch die Lüfte;Süße, wohlbekannte DüfteStreifen ahnungsvoll das Land.Veilchen träumen schon,Wollen balde kommen.– Horch, von fern ein leiser Harfenton!Frühling, ja du bist’s!Dich […]
Felicia Graber
26 posts
It is Thursday evening, December 22, 2022. The fifth night of Chanukkah. A few days earlier, our son had suggested that we sponsor a Chanukkah family get-together in our condo. My husband’s physical condition does not permit us to join our family at another location. “You will not have to […]
Remembering December 5, 1959. Written in Ellwood City, PA, 1966.Updated on the occasion of our 63rd anniversary, December 6, 2022. Tomorrow I am getting married! Tomorrow! I am getting married! Me, Felicia Bialecki, I am getting married! I still cannot believe it. Me, who always seems to be at the end […]
It is a cold winter evening in 1944. A group of farmers sits around the kitchen table in Chyliczki, a small village near Warsaw. Even though it is only four o’clock, it is already dark outside. This is the only heated space in the two-room wooden farmhouse. During the day, […]
Originally written in 1965. Edited in 1983, 1990, 2019, 2022. The rear lights of the car disappeared. A second later even the faint growl of the motor was engulfed by the silence of the night. I was brutally dumped into a cold, dark, isolating solitude. The bright stars were staring […]
An article in the Wall Street Journal weekend edition of July 2-3, 2022, by Joseph Skibell titled “When the Prayers at School Aren’t Yours” triggered some memories of events that happened during my teen years. Growing up in Lubbock, Texas in the 1970s, Mr. Skibell writes: “There were only a […]
Sock, sock, sock, poor deserted sock. Everyone laments his missing mate. No one thinks about us, the many lonely knee-highs. We don’t get any respect. We are thrown individually and carelessly into a drawer without our mates. Where there are piles of different shades of tan, grey, black, sheer and […]
Image: This photo is from my hometown, Tarnów, during the second deportation. “Always follow your logic,” was Salomon’s proud “leitmotiv.” Going against logic showed weakness, made no sense. Logic dictated his personal and business life. To this day, quips such as: “Always follow your logic,” “Don’t follow others,” “Follow your […]
On February 24, 2022, Russia began an attempt to invade Ukraine. For the last 47 days that country has been subject to constant vicious bombardment. Whole cities have been put to ruin; millions of civilians have fled the country seeking asylum abroad. The bombing has not been concentrated on military […]