Oy, Lita

Kovno Province… eighteen-fifty… The Russian Tsar is far away… and winter is near… A wooden village in the birch and rye The Šventoji river rolling by A blacksmith's hammer before the sun Shoeing the horses one by one On the Tsar's high road to Petersburg Wagons bring the salt and the news of the world And Vilkomir's market on a Thursday morn Half the town Jewish, where his sons were born Oy, Lita, Lita, land of snow and pine Yiddish in the kitchen and the candle's shine We had no land, we had the Book And we gave the world whatever it took Oy, Lita, Lita, in the Pale we stay Six days we work and the seventh we pray In Pakruojis by the wooden shul Built without a nail, the old men say it's true A shoemaker sits with his last and thread Mending the boots for a crust of bread Flax in the fields, geese on the green Joniškis market, the busiest you've seen Lithuanian farmers, the Jewish trade Neighbours by day, by night afraid Then the snatchers came on a winter's night Taking the boys at the edge of the light Twelve years old for the Tsar's own war Twenty-five years, and they'd come home no more In Dvinsk on the river, the fortress walls A hat maker stitching while the soldier calls In Šakiai by the Prussian line The slaughterer whispers a blessing on the knife Friday night… the whole world stops… The bread is braided, the candles lit… In Vilna, Jerusalem of the North The scholars argue every word of it… We are poor in roubles… we are rich in Psalms… Shabbat comes in… like a bride… in our arms… A new Tsar came in fifty-five He sent the stolen boys back home alive Then the iron horse came screaming through Vilna to Dvinsk in a day or two But the hungry years of sixty-eight Empty barns and an empty plate And a letter came from a southern shore "There's gold in Africa — come, don't wait no more" Oy, Lita, Lita, land of snow and pine Yiddish in the kitchen and the candle's shine We had no land, we had the Book And we gave the world whatever it took Oy, Lita, Lita, we can't stay Pack up the candlesticks… Libau… and away… Biržai… Joniškis… Pakruojis… Vilkomir…