Yehoash (Solomon Bloomgarden—1870—1927) is well known as a modern Yiddish poet. The present poem was published in the Zukunft in 1927 (after the author’s death) under the title, “Degrees.” It is here translated by Jacob Sloan.
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Each of them attained to a single clod,
Now will He all the grasses gather;
Some there were that made attempt to stammer,
And now will He say the Great Word aloud.
On the blinded ways wanderers did creep,
And at every turn there was an audacious print;
Now will He, the Last One and the Master,
Double them all in one winning sweep.
And there will hang upon His citadels
A blessing, silent as a rainbow;
Blessed be the dead and unquickened roe,
The luckless hand, and the steps that fail!
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