GEBIRTIG, Mordechai

A Beam of Sunlight

A beam from the sun falls across my bed,

It’s how the spring is heralded,

It starts to wake me with tender affection:

Get up, man, it’s dawning,

Hear the cock crow!

The spring, the monarch of love is aglow

And coming from every direction.

Get up, man, it’s dawning,

To me the beam says,

And warm and gentle I feel its caresses—

Go out, spread the news with elation,

On field and forest will soon be unfurled,

On all kinds of birds, on man, on the world,

The long awaited salvation.

Get up man! It’s dawning,

The beam says to me,

Here’s a sunbeam-bouquet, look up and see,

It’s springtime, the time of good news,

Soon will come blossoms, and seeding, and birds,

And nestlings and freedom and bright cheerful words

For all mankind, and for you also, Jews.

A beam from the sun falls across my bed,