Jewish Suffering

Break forth in lamentation,

My agonizing song,

That like a lava-torrent

Has boiled within me long.

My song shall thrill each hearer,

And none so deaf but hears,

For the burden of my ditty

Is the pain of a thousand years.

It melts both gentle and simple,

Even hearts of stone are riven—

Sets women and flowers weeping;

They weep, the stars of heaven.

And all these tears are flowing

By channels still and wide,

Homeward they are all flowing

To meet in Jordan’s tide.

H. HEINE, 1824.