LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   Volume 47, No. 4 - Winter 2001 Editor of this issue: M. Gražina Slavėnas ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 2001 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

VILNIUS GHETTO

JUDITA VAIČIŪNAITĖ 
Translated by M. Gražina Slavėnas

At six o 'clock in the morning,
   when the milk shops and newspaper
   stands are still closed, 
at six in the morning,
   in streets and alleys
   of the Vilnius ghetto 
dandelions unfold,
   dusty golden
   flowers of the street 
blossoming into yellow Jewish stars.
   They sprout in cracks,
   under crumbling brick, 
underground tunnels,
   awesome archways, 
deep smoke-blackened passages
   with a clinging acrid
   odor of fish and garlic, i
in the rubble of backyard cellars
   dandelions unfold
   their golden halos 
at six o 'clock in the morning 
and their golden splendor also streams 
into a tightly sealed-off courtyard
   where the forgotten shadow
   of a Jew still prays.
   Or, perhaps, whispers a curse.

1993