Boris Slutsky
Burdened with family feelings...

Burdened with family feelings, I went
To my aunt's place,
                               to see my uncle,

To press my girl cousins to my breast,
Who were so carried away,
                                            as it happened,
By music and the other arts!

I found neither uncle nor aunt,
I did not see my cousins either.
But I remember,
                          remember
                                           to this day.
How their neighbours,
                                   looking down at the ground,
Said to me quietly: They were burnt.

Everything's gone up in flames: the vices with the virtues,
And children with their aged parents.
And there am I, standing before these hushed witnesses.
And quietly repeating:
                                   burnt.

Translated by Daniel Weissbort