<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Kartúshkiya-Beróza</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">It</span> is twelve years since I have been there --</p><p class="line">I was born there,</p><p class="line">In the little town, by the river --</p><p class="line">It all comes back to me now</p><p class="line">Reading in the newspaper:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">"The Germans have seized the bridge-head at Kartúshkiya-Beró;za;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">The Russians are retreating in good order across the marshes;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">The town is in flames."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Kartúshkiya-Beró;za!</p><p class="line">Sweet-sounding, time-scented name --</p><p class="line">Smelling of wide-extending marshes of hay;</p><p class="line">Smelling of cornfields;</p><p class="line">Smelling of apple-orchards;</p><p class="line">Smelling of cherry-trees in full blossom;</p><p class="line">Smelling of all the pleasant recollections of my childhood --</p><p class="line">Smelling of Grandmother's kitchen,</p><p class="line">Grandmother's freshly-baked dainties,</p><p class="line">Grandmother's plum-pudding --</p><p class="line">Kartúshkiya-Beró;za!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I see before me a lane running between two rows of straggling cottages --</p><p class="line">I cannot remember the name of the lane;</p><p class="line">I do not know whether it has any name at all;</p><p class="line">But I remember it was broad and unpaven and shaded with wide-branching chestnuts --</p><p class="line">And enters the market-place</p><p class="line">Just a few houses after my Grandfather's --</p><p class="line">Kartúshkiya-Beró;za!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I can see it even now</p><p class="line">My Grandfather's house --</p><p class="line">On the lane, to the right, as you come from the market-place;</p><p class="line">A big, hospitable frame building --</p><p class="line">Big like my Grandfather's own heart,</p><p class="line">And hospitable like Grandmother's smile --</p><p class="line">I can see it even now,</p><p class="line">With the white-pillared porch in the centre and the sharp-gabled roof</p><p class="line">Pierced with little windows;</p><p class="line">And the great quadrangular garden behind it;</p><p class="line">And the tall fence surrounding the garden;</p><p class="line">And the old well in the corner of the garden;</p><p class="line">With the bucket-lift</p><p class="line">Rising over the fence --</p><p class="line">Kartúshkiya-Beró;za!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I can see him even now,</p><p class="line">My Grandfather --</p><p class="line">Bending over me, tall and sad-eyed and thoughtful</p><p class="line">Lifting me up and seating me on his knees</p><p class="line">Lovingly,</p><p class="line">And listening to all my childish questions and confessions;</p><p class="line">Pardoning, admonishing, remonstrating --</p><p class="line">Satisfying my interrogative soul with good-humored indulgence --</p><p class="line">And my Grandmother,</p><p class="line">Dear little woman!</p><p class="line">I can never dissociate her from plum-pudding and apple dumplings,</p><p class="line">And raisin-cakes and almond cakes and crisp potato pancakes</p><p class="line">And the smell of fish frying on the fire --</p><p class="line">And then there is my cousin, Miriam,</p><p class="line">Who lived in the yellow house across the lane --</p><p class="line">A freckle-faced, cherry-eyed little girl with a puckered-up nose.</p><p class="line">I was very romantic about her;</p><p class="line">And then there is my curse, my rival at school, my arch-enemy --</p><p class="line">Jacob,</p><p class="line">The synagogue sexton's boy,</p><p class="line">On whom 1 was always warring --</p><p class="line">God knows on what battlefield he must be lying now!</p><p class="line">And then there is Nathan and Joseph and Berel and Solomon</p><p class="line">And Ephraim, the baker's boy,</p><p class="line">And Baruch and Gershen and Mendel</p><p class="line">And long-legged, sandy-haired Emanuel who fell into the pond with me that time,</p><p class="line">While we were skating on the ice --</p><p class="line">Kartúshkiya-Beró;za!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I can see myself even now</p><p class="line">In the lane on a summer's day,</p><p class="line">Cap in hand, chasing after dragon-flies --</p><p class="line">Suddenly, near by, sounds the noise of drums and bugles --</p><p class="line">I know what that means!</p><p class="line">Breathlessly I dash up the lane --</p><p class="line">It is the regiment quartered in the barracks at the end of the town, in its annual parade on the highway --</p><p class="line">How I would wish to be one of those gray-coated heroes!</p><p class="line">I watch them eager-eyed --</p><p class="line">And run after them until they reach the Gentile Quarter --</p><p class="line">And then I turn back --</p><p class="line">Kartúshkiya-Beró;za!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I am in the market-place --</p><p class="line">At a Fair;</p><p class="line">The market-place is a heaving mass of carts and horses and oxen;</p><p class="line">The oxen are lowing, the horses are neighing, the peasants are cursing in a dozen different dialects --</p><p class="line">I am in Grandfather's store,</p><p class="line">On the lower end of the market-place, right opposite the public well --</p><p class="line">The store is full of peasants and peasant women, bargaining at the top of their voices;</p><p class="line">The men are clad in rough sheepskin coats and fur caps;</p><p class="line">The women are gay in bright-colored cottons and wear red kerchiefs around their heads;</p><p class="line">My Grandfather is standing behind the counter measuring out rope to some peasants;</p><p class="line">Grandmother is cutting a strip of linen for a peasant woman, chaffering with another one at the same time, about the price of a pair of sandals --</p><p class="line">And I am sitting there, behind the counter, on a sack of flour,</p><p class="line">Playing with my black-eyed little cousin --</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Kartúshkiya-Beró;za!</p><p class="line">Kartúshkiya-Beró;za!</p><p class="line">It comes back to me suddenly --</p><p class="line">That I am sitting here, with a newspaper in my hand,</p><p class="line">Reading:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">"The Germans have seized the bridge-head at Kartúshkiya-Beró;za;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">The Russians are retreating in good order across the marshes;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">The town is in flames!"</p></div><p class="byline">-- Alter Brody.</p></body></html> · Great War