Motty Ilowitz – “Silence” (Shtilkeit) – English translation

Silence (Shtilkeit)
From Motty's album 'Hasugos' (השגות). https://album.link/hasugos
...
Lyrics:
Wherever I step and step
Wherever I go and go
I hear the pleas
to the point that my ears hurt

Of little people who lie beneath me
Little people - like you and me.

I see the father being dragged away
I see the young boy being burned
I see the sister being beaten
I see the mother with the baby in her hands

Little people - who lie beneath me
Little people - like you and me.

Little people whom no one will know anymore
Little people who no one knows who and where they are.
Pure, innocent souls
Beneath a memorial stone
No name, no image, no remnant of your beauty.

And I cry:
“ארץ ארץ אל תכסי דמם
(Earth, earth, do not cover up their blood)
Do not cover up
Let the bones protrude until they will awaken.
Our past
It cries, it yearns and shouts
You could go deaf from the world’s most resounding silence.

I don’t know your name
And I don’t know where you're from
I only know where you’re headed
And I hear how sadly you moan

Little people - who lie beneath me
Little people like you and me.

It’s not them, it’s me
It’s now, not then
It’s not glasses, teeth and shoes
It’s our nation

Little people - who lie beneath me
Little people - like you and me.
Little people whom no one will know anymore
Little people who no one knows who and where they are.
Pure, innocent souls
Beneath a memorial stone
No name, no image, no remnant of your beauty.

And I cry:
“ארץ ארץ אל תכסי דמם
(Earth, earth, do not cover up their blood)
Do not cover up
Let the bones protrude until they will awaken.
Our past
It cries, it yearns and shouts
You could go deaf from the world’s most resounding silence.
...

Bones, teeth, memorial stones
Of millions who are nameless.
To inquire about it, like we used to
There is almost no one left today.

The atrocities, injustices, that happened yesterday
Wanted to annihilate them too.

The last, esteemed, elders
Oy, who remember the hell.

The little people - whom no one will ever
Whom no one will ever know anymore…