From the synagogues calamity is howling
While from the sky favors the blest sun.
How excellent this day to pour one’s heart in autumn.
This day is Atonement, day of universal shame.
Let us bear it, strongly, one brief hour
For our miserable lives, and our living horror.
And for every wretch whose anguish will not cease to pain
Let us forgive our folk his calamity.
Let us forgive one another, comradely.
This day is Atonement, look we and be silent.
This is the day when every aching plaint
Blossoms into fire, kindles into flame.
And our distant God, terrible with awe—
This day let us regard him with the same forgiveness.
This day let us forgive him, too, for creating us.