Half apes, half ghosts, they grovel,
Nor human is their tone,
Yet they are not brutes but brethren,
These wrecks of the hunger-zone,
And their death-cry rings to heaven in the tongue that is your own.
[⭘] For an historical account of these child-martyrdoms, see Dubnow, History of the Jewish Russia and Poland, J. P. S., 1918, vol. ii, pp. 18–29.
[⭘] Stories and Pictures, J. P. S., 1906, contains the best work of Peretz. The Yiddish original of ‘Bontzie Schweig’, with English translation, is published in Wiener, pp. 332–53.
With Peretz, Yiddish letters ‘enter into competition with what is best in the world’s literature, where he will some day occupy an honourable place. Peretz offers gladly all he has, his genius, in the service of the lowly. Literature, according to him, is a consolation to those who have no other consolation, a safe and pleasurable retreat for those who are buffeted about on the stormy sea of life. For these reasons he prefers to dwell with the down-trodden and the submerged.’ (Wiener).
[⭘] Cf. Emma Lazarus’ Banner of the Jew:—
Oh for Jerusalem’s trumpet now,