In zaltsikn yam fun di mentshlekhe trern Gefint zikh a shreklekher thom, Er ken shoyn nit tifer, nit fintsterer vern, Im tseykhnt a blutiker shtrom.
Dem thom hobn toyznter yorn gegrobn Emune in sine un payn, Un toyznter yorn, alts tropn nokh tropn Es gisn zikh trern arayn.
Beneath the salt sea of humanity's weeping A terrible chasm abides It couldn't be darker, it couldn't be deeper It's stained with a bloody red tide
So much of this sea has been filled with the sorrows Endured by the suffering Jews But only the tears of the poor ones are bloody The rich cry as clear as the dew
Yes only the worker, the pauper, the beggar Belong to the bloody abyss While those you call “brother,” the rich and the greedy, Fly high overhead in their bliss
And thousands of years have created this chasm Of piety, hatred, and pain And for thousands of years all humanity's weeping Flows like a limitless rain
The ocean flows over and floods out the levees There isn't a hero in sight Yes where are the ones that will stand at the ready To dive in the chasm and fight
Der arbeter ver vet endlekh derleyzn Fun hunger un eybiker layd ? Un ver vet dem veg im tsu frayhayt bavayzn Tsu brudershaft, glaykhkayt un freyd ?
Yes, who will at last free the work from slavery, Give hunger its final relief? And who will be guiding the pathway to freedom, To brotherhood, justice and peace?
The children of wealth, the enlightened, the clergy, Into Zion the call the Hebrews We’ve heard this old story before from our enemies “A ghetto for the eternal Jew”
With Zion we answer the prayers of our fathers From deep in their graves they must call While souls who are living are hungry and crying To them we are deaf as the wall
Messiah and Jewry are both dead and buried Another messiah's to come The new Jewish worker the banner will carry To signal that justice is done
Der arbeter vet di velt i bafrayen i heyln, Er vet dergreykhn dem thom bizn grunt, Zol leben fun Rusland, fun Lite un Poyln, Der Yidisher Arbeter Bund.
The world will be freed and be healed by this hero, Who dives to the root of its wound. In Russia, in Vilna, in Poland all hail now The Great Jewish Worker’s Bund!