Berlin / Tel Aviv [English translation]

I am the star that slept on your floor

I am the star that lays fallen before the heavens

I am the star on which you see the sun at night

I am your star, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin

Elli was thirteen

'38, Berlin Weißensee1

The father is not allowed to work as pediatrician2

He no longer knows how this is supposed to go on

The mother dreams of Herzl's3 Old New Land4 –

Palestine5

His heart is set on Germany

On the Germany of Rilke6, Mann7 and Schubert8

Not on the Germany that allows this fear here (to reign)9

He will send her away

It is inevitable

'38

The last days in September10

Berlin, Anhalter Bahnhof11

She beckons the father through the pane and they depart

He shouts after her that one is not to shed tears

When traveling to the land of one's (ancestral) fathers12

She does not understand right away what that means

Was not she leaving the father behind, at this very platform?

And the world becomes blurred before her eyes

Sinking into "for good" and "never again"

And they drive into the night

She falls asleep as she feels him keeping watch over her

And in her dream he has got wings

She dreams that he flies to the south

Following her onto peace

Onto Tel Aviv, Mound of Spring13

I am the star that slept on your floor

I am the star that lays fallen before the heavens

I am the star on which you see the sun at night

I am your star, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin

Eight days and eight nights on a boat

While the November storm is raging

Here above the sea and at home in Berlin14

Due to (a lack of) 1000 pound sterling the father is no longer able to flee

And she, expelled into this cold world,

Is praying to a God she calls into question

While she is counting the days

That she is not holding the father in her arms

And she takes lavish care of the remaining things from home:

The volume of Rilke, some clothes, her violin

Throughout her voyage, escape without refuge,

Only this fear of the future (is left)

And he refuses to believe it till they stand in front of the house at night

But they do beat and do plunder, they do arrest thousand

'38, Sachsenhausen15

A letter from Tel Aviv, he is just pleased that they got out

The little Elli Weinreb

And this homesickness, will it ever pass?

For the lost land, there in the promised land16

And she dreams herself far away

And in her dream she has got wings

She dreams that she flies off from the south

Flies back onto peace

Onto Berlin, from the Mounds of Spring

I am the star that slept on your floor

I am the star that lays fallen before the heavens

I am the star on which you see the sun at night

I am your star, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin

I am the star that you were looking for so long

I am the star, the sparkling through the boughs

I am lost, in the smoke17 across the landscape

I am your star, Berlin, Berlin

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weissensee_(Berlin)2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_in_the_time_of_National_Socialism#P...3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_New_Land5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke7. Either http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Mann8. There have been many famous people that went by the surname of Schubert in Germany and Austria. It's hard to tell which one is meant; most likely Franz Schubert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schubert). Some of them you will find here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schubert_(surname)9. another possible translation would be "...the Germany that tolerates/countenances this fear here"10. A chronology of events that happened in September of 1938: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938#September11. A former railway terminus in Berlin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhalter_Bahnhof12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eretz_Yisrael13. That is the literal translation of "Tel Aviv".14. A reference to the "Kristallnacht": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsenhausen_concentration_camp16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promised_Land17. A reference to the smoking chimneys of the camps' crematorias.