May is Jewish Heritage Month in Canada. This translation was originally featured in Rebel Youth #26 (Winter 2020-2021). To receive the newest issue of Rebel Youth – Jeunesse Militante, subscribe here!
Shimon Nepom (1882—1939) was born the year following Tsar Alexander II’s assassination, and died on the eve of the Second World War. After immigrating from Ukraine to Toronto, Canada, he worked as a TTC streetcar driver. By night, he served as a member of the “Proletarian Poets,” a local communist Yiddish poetry group. Before his death, he published multiple volumes of his writings, much of which touched on his autobiographical experience as a Jewish worker and his socialist aspirations.
“We Proletarians” was featured in Nepom’s collection Pentes (פּענטעס), published in 1928 in Toronto. Pentes can be read in full, alongside other collections by Nepom, through the Yiddish Book Centre.
Poem translated by Bronwyn Cragg, with many thanks to Miriam
We Proletarians
We proletarians heat the oven
With our fire, with our hatred,
So that the truth should inundate their houses:
The houses of the poor on the workers’ street.
With us, with shaggy skulls, a wife and child,
With nicked faces and looks of loneliness,
Let our day come upon the great, wicked wonders,
Upon despotic hangmen with knives and rope.
Let a job be done above the exasperated mob,
Let he, in the place of honour, be carried through the air;
The blaze of our breasts, like the heated oven,
As we unfurl the red-stained workers’ flag
A world to liberate — a fiery elation —
From robbers that gnaw at our blood day and night;
Kindle the masses like the great oceans —
The rich declare a bloody battle.
מיר פּראָלעטאַריער
מיר פּראָלעטאַריער די אויװנט צעהײצן
מיט אײגענעם פֿײַער, מיט אײגענעם האַס
עס זאָל אונזער עמעס די הײַזער פֿאַרפֿלײצן
די אָרימע הײַזער, די אַרבעטער גאַס
מיט אונז, מיט צעקודלטע קעפּ, פֿרױ און קינד
מיט פּאָנים צעקאַרבטן און עלנט אין בליק
אַ לאָז טאָג זיך זאָלן אױף גרױסן בײז־װאונדער
אױף הײנקערס דעספּאָטן מיט מעסער און שטריק
אַ פֿאַך טאַן אַריבער די אַרגיעס צערײַצטע
אַ טראָג טאָן אין לופֿטן װער ס׳זיצט אױבן אַן
אַ פֿלאַקער מיט ברוסטן, װי אויװנס צעהײצטע
צעװיקלען די בלוטיקע אַרבעטער פֿאַן
אַ װעלט צו באַפֿרײַען — אַ סימכע אַ הײסע
פֿון רױבער װאָס נאָגן דעם בלוט טעג װי נאַכט
צעצינדן די מאַסן, װי יאַמים די גרױסע
דערקלערן די רײַכע אַ בלוטיקן שלאַכט