Li fermis la kofron, manpremis—adiaŭ!
Sen ia protesto li iris . . . Hodiaŭ
mi tion komprenas; li povis nur miri,
ke mi, la kristano, lin lasis foriri.

Kun kapo klinita la kofron li portis.
Li iris la vojon al Auschwitz kaj mortis
sen ia protesto . . . Li povis nur miri,
ke mi, la kristano, lin lasis foriri.

Kaj iam la filo kun filo parolos,
kaj tiu demandos, la veron li volos.
La mia silentos . . . kaj povos nur miri,
ke mi, la kristano, lin lasis foriri.

Ni sentis kompaton kaj monon kolektis,
dum kelkaj el ni la infanojn protektis.
Sed Auschwitz ekzistis! Nu, kion plu diri?
Ke mi kaj ke vi . . . ni lin lasis foriri.

FONTO: Deij, Lodewijk Cornelis. “Al la Juda Foririnto,” en Esperanta Antologio: Poemoj 1887-1981, 2-a. eld., reviziita kaj kompletigita, red. William Auld (Rotterdam: Universala Esperanto-Asocio, 1984), p. 375-6.

Paul Gubbins notes:

“This poem needs no introduction     . It  was published in La Praktiko (The Practice) in the May/ June issue of 1948. Various English translations exist but the version below received a commendation in the Times Stephen Spender prize for poetry translation in 2007.”

To the Jew Who Walked Away
(1948)

By Leen Deij
Translated by Elizabeth Stanley

He closed the suitcase lid, he shook my hand.
And said farewell, and could not understand.
He made no protest—what was there to say?
And I, the Christian, let him walk away.

With head bowed low, his suitcase at his side,
He took the road to Auschwitz, where he died
Without a protest. What was there to say?
And I, the Christian, let him walk away.

One day, his son—suppose his son should live—
Will look for answers, which my son can’t give.
He’ll turn to me, and I shall have to say
That I, the Christian, let him walk away.

And some will say: “We did the best we could,
Gave money, sheltered children. . .” Well and good.
Yet Auschwitz happened—all that we can say
Is: “You and I—we—let him walk away.”

SOURCE: Gubbins, Paul, ed. Star in a Night Sky: An Anthology of Esperanto Literature (London: Francis Boutle Publishers, 2012), pp. 156-157. (Lesser Used Languages of Europe; Volume 5)

Note: Leendert Cornelis Deij also appears under the names ‘Lodewijk Cornelis Deij’ & ‘Leen Deij’. On my blog I erroneously misspelled Deij’s middle name as ‘Cornelius’. — RD