The Strangest Creature on Earth

You’re like a scorpion, my brother,
you live in cowardly darkness
                                like a scorpion.
You’re like a sparrow, my brother,
always in a sparrow’s flutter.
You’re like a clam, my brother,
closed like a clam, content.
And you’re scary, my brother,
                              like the mouth of a sleeping volcano.

Not one,
            not five- 
sadly, you number millions.
You’re like sheep, my brother:
                            when the cloaked drover raises his stick,
                                                  you quickly join the flock
and run, almost proudly, to the slaughterhouse.
I mean, you’re the strangest creature on earth-
even stranger than the fish
                             that couldn’t see the ocean for the water.
And the oppression in this world
                             is thanks to you.
And if we’re hungry, tired, covered with blood,
and still being crushed like grapes for our wine,
                                                the fault is yours-
I can hardly bring myself to say it,
but most of the fault, my dear brother, is yours.        
                                                                         1947

Tr. by Randy Blasing & Mutlu Konuk