By Hirsh Bloshtein
From the 1977 Keidan Yizkor Book.
My youth in Keidan, come back to me, I just want to hear your voice once more It's not yet time to say the final "stop" and cut the string for once and all. While I'm still unbeaten there's still a final hour At night I hear it, like a creaking at the door And Smilga Street comes in to me And all is as it was, and wasn't before; And I'm back with the boys, running wide and free. Through our beloved street, we dream together and, like our hearts, our heads too are still young And it's all very good, and very bad in all the familiar and unfamiliar nights when my hands push back the distant years My Keidaner "boys" come back to me!
Translated by A. Cassel