La Synagogue

Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire Collection AlcoolsThemes ReligionPeriod 20th century

Ottomar Scholem and Abraham Loeweren
Wearing green felt hats on the morning of the Sabbath
Go to the synagogue along the Rhine
And the hillsides where the vines turn red over there

They argue and shout things one scarcely dares translate
Bastard conceived during menstruation or May the devil enter your father
The old Rhine lifts its streaming face and turns away to smile
Ottomar Scholem and Abraham Loeweren are angry

Because during the Sabbath one must not smoke
While Christians pass with lighted cigars
And because Ottomar and Abraham both love
Lia with sheep’s eyes and whose belly protrudes a little

Yet presently in the synagogue one after the other
They will kiss the Torah lifting their fine hats
Among the branches of the Feast of Tabernacles
Ottomar singing will smile at Abraham

They will sing out of tune without measure and the grave voices of men
Will make a Leviathan groan at the bottom of the Rhine like an autumn voice
And in the synagogue full of hats they will wave the lulabim
Hanoten ne Kamoth bagoim tholahoth baleoumim

Guillaume Apollinaire

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

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