My OperaSaturday, November 20, 2004 7:01:03 PM
Today is
Universal Children's Day
.
These are two poems written by children interned at Terezin Concentration Camp . Something everybody should remember:
TEREZIN
That bit of filth in dirty walls,
And all around barbed wire,
And thirty-thousand souls who sleep
Who once will wake
And once will see
Their own blood spilled.
I was once a little child,
Three years ago.
That child who longed for other worlds.
But now I am no more a child
For I have learned to hate.
I am a grown-up person now,
I have known fear.
Bloody words and a dead day then,
That's something different than boogie men!
But anyway, I still believe I only sleep today,
That I'll wake up, a child again,
and start to laugh and play.
I'll go back to childhood sweet like a briar rose,
Like a bell which wakes us from a dream,
Like a mother with an ailing child
Loves him with aching woman's love.
How tragic then, is youth which lives
With enemies, with gallows ropes,
How tragic, then, for children on your lap
To say: this for the good, that for the bad.
Somewhere, far away out there, childhood sweetly sleeps,
Along that path among the trees,
There o'er that house
Which was once my pride and joy.
There my mother gave me birth into this world
So I could weep...
In the flame of candles by my bed, I sleep
And once perhaps I'll understand
That I was such a little thing,
As little as this song.
These thirty-thousand souls who sleep
Among the trees will wake,
Open an eye
And because they see
A lot
They'll fall asleep again...
(Michael Flack, 1944)
TO OLGA
Listen!
The boat whistle has sounded now
And we must sail
Out toward an unknown port.
We'll sail a long, long way
And dreams will turn to truth.
Oh, how sweet the name Morocco!
Listen!
Now it's time.
The wind sings songs of far away,
Just look up to heaven
And think about the violets.
Listen!
Now it's time.
(Alena Synkova)
These are some links that you can find interesting:
Declaration of the rights of the child (1959)
UNICEF
Innocenti Research Center
Universal Children Day
Cool Science for Curious Kids
Yahooligans (The Web Guide for Kids)
These are two poems written by children interned at Terezin Concentration Camp . Something everybody should remember:
TEREZIN
That bit of filth in dirty walls,
And all around barbed wire,
And thirty-thousand souls who sleep
Who once will wake
And once will see
Their own blood spilled.
I was once a little child,
Three years ago.
That child who longed for other worlds.
But now I am no more a child
For I have learned to hate.
I am a grown-up person now,
I have known fear.
Bloody words and a dead day then,
That's something different than boogie men!
But anyway, I still believe I only sleep today,
That I'll wake up, a child again,
and start to laugh and play.
I'll go back to childhood sweet like a briar rose,
Like a bell which wakes us from a dream,
Like a mother with an ailing child
Loves him with aching woman's love.
How tragic then, is youth which lives
With enemies, with gallows ropes,
How tragic, then, for children on your lap
To say: this for the good, that for the bad.
Somewhere, far away out there, childhood sweetly sleeps,
Along that path among the trees,
There o'er that house
Which was once my pride and joy.
There my mother gave me birth into this world
So I could weep...
In the flame of candles by my bed, I sleep
And once perhaps I'll understand
That I was such a little thing,
As little as this song.
These thirty-thousand souls who sleep
Among the trees will wake,
Open an eye
And because they see
A lot
They'll fall asleep again...
(Michael Flack, 1944)
TO OLGA
Listen!
The boat whistle has sounded now
And we must sail
Out toward an unknown port.
We'll sail a long, long way
And dreams will turn to truth.
Oh, how sweet the name Morocco!
Listen!
Now it's time.
The wind sings songs of far away,
Just look up to heaven
And think about the violets.
Listen!
Now it's time.
(Alena Synkova)
These are some links that you can find interesting:
Declaration of the rights of the child (1959)
UNICEF
Innocenti Research Center
Universal Children Day
Cool Science for Curious Kids
Yahooligans (The Web Guide for Kids)
