Take this with you
Prayer at Night – Erich Fried
Where injustice speaks with the voices
of justice and of power
where injustice speaks with the voices
of benevolence and of reason
where injustice speaks with the voices
of moderation and of experience
help us not to become bitter
And if we do despair
help us to see that we are desperate
and if we do become bitter
help us to see that we are becoming bitter
and if we shrink with fear
help us to know that it is fear
despair and bitterness and fear
So that we do not fall
into the error
of thinking
we have had a new revelation
and found the great way out
or the way in
and that alone had changed us.
*Erich Fried was a Jewish-Austrian poet whose father was murdered by the Gestapo following the Anschluss with Nazi Germany. He has another poem called “A Jew to Zionist Fighters” and you can find one translation of it here.
