Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey

the wolf, part 3

My translation project is going slower than I anticipated, but it’s still under way. A new, typographical twist is that the three letters below in bold as extra wide Hebrew letters in the Yiddish orthography. Not quite sure what to make of them.

un az er hot derfilt, az er hot fargesn ale verter,
hot im a shpar geton a shtrom fun untern lefele:
un az der shtrom hot nisht gekont greykhn tsu di oygn
un geblibn shtekn in zayn tsenoyfgeklemtn haldz —
hot der rov nokh merer nisht gevust vos tsu ton.

az di nakht iz gekumen un hot tsugedekt
di khorevdike shtot mit a groyser finsternish
hot der rov zikh oyfgehaybn funes koymen,
oykh velkhn er iz nokh gezesn,
hot a ker geton zayn ponim tsu mayrev-tsu
un mit di zokhn oykh di fis zikh avekgelozt geyn
mit des braytn shliakh, vos firt in vald arayn.

der brayter shliakh iz geven badekt mit alerlay khfeytsim,
mit biksn un mit hitlen un tsebrokhene reder,
un di erd geven tseakert un tsetramplt
fun koyln un fun granatn,
fun ferdishe kopites un khayelishe fis —
finsternish un shtilkeyt un mer gornisht.

un az der rov opgegangen etlekhe mayl,
hot a kalter vint angehaybn blozn fun tsofn-zayt
un der rov hot derfilt a groyse midkeyt in zayn guf
un a kelt iber ale zayne beyner.

hot der rov zikh avekgezetst oyf der erd tsu opruen,
un dernokh zikh oysgetsoygn oyfn mitn shliakh
mit opene oygn tsum himl.
un der himl iz geven hoykh un tif un oysgeshternt
mit mili-miliasn shtern.

And he felt, when he forgot all the words,
that a stream from the pit of his stomach welled up
but the stream could not reach his eyes
and remained stuck in his grieving throat —
and the rabbi once more did not know what to do.

When the night came and covered
the wasted city with a great darkness
the rabbi stood up from the chimney,
where he was still sitting,
he turned his face to the West
and he let his feet go
along the broad unpaved road, what stirred in woods ahead.

The broad dirt road was covered over with things.
with guns and with caps and broken wheels,
and the earth was plowed up and trampled
by shells and granades
by horses hooves and soldiers’ feet —
darkness and stillness and nothing else.

And when the rabbi went a few miles,
a cold wind blew in from the north
and the rabbi felt a great fatigue in his body
and cold in all his limbs.

The rabbi sat down on the earth to rest,
and afterwards he stretched himself out in the middle of the dirt road
with his eyes open to the sky
and the sky was high and cavernous and marked
with myriads of stars.

The toughest time I had was trying to translate the first stanza. Something’s going on, but I’m not quite sure what it is. I’m hoping one of my readers will have a better idea.