Holy Innocents

Already Embraced by the Arms of Heavenly Solace

Holy Innocents | Holocaust | Judaica

Holocaust Poetry | Thorns and Barbed Wire

Already embraced by the arm of heavenly solace

The insane mother stands

With the tatters of her torn mind

With the charred tinders of her burnt mind

Burying her dead child,

Burying her lost light,

Twisting her hands into urns,

Filling them with the body of her child from the air,

Filling them with his eyes, his hair from the air,

And with his fluttering heart –

Then she kisses the air‑born being

And dies!

Nelly Sachs

(Translated by Michael Roloff)

Holocaust Poetry: Compiled and Introduced by Hilda Schiff Page 68