 no longer existed. Love had spread in the little towns of Poland. In those places where love still had not blossomed, Jewish girls had to be content with love songs which described their longing and turbulent feelings. For them, Gebirtig wrote a romantic song about a shepherd and a girl:
“Hey, little goats, come to me right away,
I will sing for you now a nice song.
It begins with a young shepherd,
Bewitched by a young girl.
Another song tells us about a Jewish girl who is sitting with worry and longing for her long-awaited beloved. Because of poverty he temporarily abandoned her, so she waits for him with deep devotion and sings with hope and trust:
On a branch sits a bird,
An autumn wind blows in the field,
Faraway went my groom Shloyme,
To get somewhere in the world a job.
Gebirtig sang his love songs precisely the way Jewish girls would sing them: with eyes downcast, with embarrassment, modesty and a lyric softness. So the lyrical dialog between “Reyzele and Duvedl” is full of modesty. This was the Jewish Romeo-Juliet couple with the difference that instead of the guitar of Romeo’s serenade, we hear Duvedl’s whistle under the window of his long awaited beloved; instead of Juliet's gracious figure we see here the lovely Reyzele, and instead of a rich Italian palace – a poor Jewish house with an attic, which is all our couple can afford. Their romantic charm is no less than that of the world famous Shakespearean couple. And in matters of the heart he is even richer.
“Opens a little window,
The old little house is on watch,
And at once sounds in the quiet street
A sweet voice – That Reyzele talks;
Wait a little longer, my beloved,
Soon I will be free,
Walk around a couple times:
One, two, three”.
As a Jew grew older, he had plenty of every day worries. First of all because of the children: the eternal fear about their health, work and livelihood; the worry for their life and destiny.
From Yosele there was no letter for a while
And Shindl – who knows, what happened to her.
Just three of my four children stay with me.
Once they brought me happiness.
Mordechai Gebirtig often had to drive off melancholy. He had to go forward and fight for his existence, and so he ran away from reality into dreaming:
My heart is sad,
I feel there gnawing and delight,
My soul is longing for something,
I do not know for what.
Youth is no more, there is no hope left, and now come the “sad and gloomy” years. The poet is full of “regret and suffering” as he recollects the past. He sings about his longing moods with soft tranquility:
My eyes can still see the house
Where I was born and brought up,
I also see my crib –
Still standing where it was –
All that vanished from sight as a dream.
He would become quiet and sentimental at such times. He would go into the fields, watch how "white doves” gather around him and hum and coo. Another time he noticed children playing and, joining their circle, he called out:
“Don’t look at my grey head,
What is that for your game?
My soul is still young,
Es it was a while ago”.
Mordechai Gebirtig was never in a rage. To be angry was strange to him. Even when he was sad and mournful, he put a soft smile on his face and looked for a ray of sun. He went to a green meadow, sat down near a stream, “lonesome and deep in thought," and soon a young girl appeared in front of him "who was looking at him and laughing." He started talking to her and, as the conversation shifted into gentle tones, everything seemed to him brighter.
He noticed a bird on a tree (Trili-Tri Li-Li), a little farther away he saw a summer bird alighting on a branch (“Abramele un Yosele”), little goats wandered around him with their shepherd, Stakh (“Blumke Di Zhidovke” Blumke the Jewess), and he also strained his ears to hear the intimate love patter of a young bride and groom (“Hanele un Nocheml”). He was elated by Zippora the halutsa (pioneer in Eretz Israel) and wanted to hear from her the secret of the strength and courage which led her to leave her “native beloved shtetl” in order to keep watch at night in the Kibbutz and defend her land (“Halut