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POETRY - The Poetry of Holocaust Survivor, Rose Ausländer:Poems Translated by AnnaMaria Begemann and elana levy  My Nightingale Once upon a time my mother was a doe. The gold- brown eyes the grace stayed with her from the doe-time.
Here she was half angel half human - the middle was Mother. When I asked her what she would have wanted to be she said: a nightingale.
Now she is a nightingale. Night after night I hear her in the garden of my sleepless dream. She is singing the Zion of the ancestors she is singing the long-ago Austria she is singing the mountains and beech forests of Bukowina. Cradle songs my nightingale sings to me night after night in the garden of my sleepless dream.
Meine Nachtigall Meine Mutter war einmal ein Reh. Die goldbraunen Augen die Anmut blieben ihr aus der Rehzeit.
Hier war sie halb Engel halb Mensch — die Mitte war Mutter. Als ich sie fragte was sie gerne geworden wäre sagte sie: eine Nachtigall.
Jetzt ist sie eine Nachtigall. Nacht um Nacht höre ich sie im Garten meines schlaflosen Traumes. Sie singt das Zion der Ahnen sie singt das alte Österreich sie singt die Berge und Buchenwälder der Bukowina Wiegenlieder singt mir Nacht um Nacht meine Nachtigall im Garten meines schlaflosen Traumes.
Amazement II: Behind my cheerfulness breathes the grief
Behind the grief stands my amazement
beyond cheerfulness and grief and beyond all what was what is and what will be
Staunen II Hinter meinem Frohsinn atmet die Trauer
Hinter der Trauer steht mein Staunen
über Frohsinn und Trauer und über alles was war was ist und was sein wird
The Life of Rose Ausländer (1901-1988) Rose Ausländer’s intriguing and courageous poetry, along with her biography which illuminates much of the western world’s twentieth century history has brought AnnaMaria Begemann and elana levy to translate her work for an American audience. Rose was born in 1901, in the German-speaking Jewish community of Czernowitz, in Bukowina, which at that time was a province of the Austrian Empire. Rose lived through the two World Wars centered in Europe. Choosing to study in Vienna as a young woman, Rose was exiled there till the end of World War I, not able to return to her home till 1919. In 1921 she travelled with her future husband to the U.S. After a marriage of only a few years, she returned to Czernowitz, in 1928, now Romania, to assist her invalid mother. Rose’s father died in 1920. Rose Ausländer again lived in the U.S. in the early thirties. In 1939 with the start of World War II, she rejoined her mother in Czernowitz. In 1941 the Nazis and their allies occupied Romania. Rose and her mother were forced into the Jewish ghetto along with the 60,000 Jews of Czernowitz. By the end of WW II 55,000 of the Jews of Czernowitz were annihilated by the Nazis. Rose Ausländer survived the three years of Nazi occupation through forced labor and going into hiding. While in hiding she became friends with well-known Jewish poet, Paul Celan, also from Czernowitz. During spring 1944 the Soviets occupied the city, and liberated the Jews. Rose worked then as a librarian. Rose Ausländer returned to the U.S., as she says in her poem, Biographical Note [Biographische Notiz]: Flying/on an air swing/Europe America Europe [Fliegend/auf einer Luftschaukel/Europa Amerika Europa]. As a member of a circle of U.S. poets, Rose began writing poems in English which were widely published. Her friend, poet Marianne Moore, encouraged her to return to writing in her mother tongue, German. As Rose Ausländer said:
My Fatherland is dead [Mein Vaterland ist tot they have buried it in fire
I live in my Motherland Word In the early sixties Rose Ausländer returned to Europe. As the city of her birth was now part of the Ukraine, Rose Ausländer finally settled in Düsseldorf, Germany where there lived a small community of Jewish émigrés from Czernowitz. Any poem written by Ausländer following World War II includes her experience during the Holocaust, often explicitly. In her later poems Ausländer’s language becomes reduced to essentials. Towards the end of her life Rose Ausländer received the recognition she long deserved with several poetry books published and winning prestigious poetry prizes in Germany.Rose Ausländer died in January 1988, writing till the last year of her life. AnnaMaria Begemann and elana levy acknowledge the Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany 2010 for permitting us to translate and publish “Meine Nachtigall” from Und preise die kühlende Liebe der Luft.. Gedichte und Prosa 1983 - 1987 and ”Staunen II” from Jeder Tropfen ein Tag. Gedichte aus dem Nachlass 1990. To support our mission and passion for good storytelling, please make a tax-deductible donation by clicking here: Wild River Donation. AnnaMaria Begemann AnnaMaria Begemann was born in Germany, and lived there most of her life. She presently resides in Boulder, CO. elana levy’s parents escaped from Nazi Germany in 1938 settling in New York City, elana was born soon thereafter. She presently resides in Syracuse, NY elana levy’s poetry chapbook, Contradictions, came out in 1991. AnnaMaria Begemann and elana levy are both students of Rabbi David Cooper and Shoshana Cooper. They became friends when they attended a week long meditation pilgrimage at Auschwitz concentration camp led by the Coopers.
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