In the ghetto, my dear, it is to be in the ghetto,
Here, there’s sport wherever you look.
Table tennis, [. . .] and bridge, and getting on others’ nerves,
Tennis, beating and searching for bedbugs;
When you want air, go to Marysin,
And soon the dark cloud will lift from your face,
Flowers and trees, buckwheat white as snow,
Every Leyele is flushed with a maiden’s blush,
For the sun encourages one to take off clothes and shoes.
Oh, sweet freedom! — but stay away from the wired fence,
There, you’ll get stronger and brave,
No other competition can compare,
And if you’re bored by the ponds,
You can catch so much fish you’ll fill a bathtub with them,
So many fish we have here
That some of them go to export straightaway.
Finally, when you’ll feel like dancing,
Our firers⁵⁵² will give you a foxtrot,⁵⁵³
One hit after another: Big-Apple⁵⁵⁴ and Jimmy⁵⁵⁵
Jewish feet are quick and light.
So why do the Jews complain all the time?
Don’t they have all the pleasures they can dream of?
Indeed, they are wretched beasts, lowly and [. . .],
All they can think of is politics, dysentery, and soup.
Oh, youth, you must root out the rot
And bring joyful seeds to make the ghetto greener!
Go on, ghetto, from the foundations of the world
We shall move you together,
552 (from German Führer) leader; here probably a pun based on the Yiddish term redl firer (dance leader).
553 American fast-paced ballroom dance.
554 Ballroom dance popular in Europe in the 1930s.
555 Probably a reference to the shimmy jazz dance move.
