Remember only that I was innocent
and that, like all of you, mortals of this day,
I had, I too had a face marked
by rage, by pity and joy,
an ordinary human face!

Those are animals, they have no right to exist. I’m not arguing on how it should be done, but they (Palestinians in Gaza)need to be exterminated. -Yoav Kisch, Israeli Minister of Education (October 9, 2023) Source: Law for Palestine

This is one of the last poems written by Benjamin Fondane (1898-1944), a Romanian and French poet, critic and existentialist philosopher, also noted for his work in film and theater. Born Benjamin Wechsler in Iași, the cultural capital of Moldavia, Fondane was arrested in the spring of 1944 and later put on a transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland. He was sent to the gas chamber a few months before the Russian army liberated the camp probably because he was considered too old to work at the age of 45.

I read this poem with great sadness and a profound sense of longing for what should have been and what should be. His haunting words touched my soul. Fondane wrote as a Jew during the ascendancy of Nazi Germany, a time when the concentration and death camps were running at full tilt. Like Anne Frank, he almost survived World War II until some locals reported him to collaborationist authorities.

In these poignant words from the grave I hear the voices of Palestinians in Gaza, both the living and the dead, our fellow human beings and victims of the apartheid, settler colonial, and genocidal state of Israel. I also hear the voices of others around the world who are the victims of state terrorism, including in my home country, now and throughout history. As one out of over 8 billion people in the world, I’m doing what I can to help individuals in Gaza one person at a time. It’s not much but it’s something. It’s my moral obligation and duty.

Ironically, in light of the Israeli-engineered genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza – death by IOF soldier, missile, bomb, quadcopter, hunger, torture, disease, lack of access to medicine and health care, etc., ad nauseam – the final verse that begins with “Remember only that I was innocent…” is inscribed at the entrance of Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names in Jerusalem, a clarion call to recognize the humanity of all victims in Benjamin Fondane’s “ordinary human face.” (Yad Vashem is Hebrew for “a memorial and a name.”) Most Israelis, the Zionist regime, and millions of Zionists around the world make notable exceptions regarding the Israeli-induced plight of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and elsewhere. The genocide continues unabated in the latest “ceasefire.”

Follow this link to read the original French version. I posted translations in Arabic, German, Spanish, and Vietnamese in the comments section.

Peace, MAA

It is to you I speak, antipodal men,
I speak man to man,
with the little in me of man that remains,
with the scrap of voice left in my throat,
my blood lies upon the roads, let it not, let it
not cry out for vengeance!
The death-note is sounded, the beasts hunted down,
let me speak to you with these very words
that have been our share-
few intelligible ones remain.
A day will come, surely, of thirst appeased,
we will be beyond memory, death
will have finished the works of hate,
I will be a clump of nettles beneath your feet,
-ah, then, know that I had a face
like you. A mouth that prayed, like you.
When a bit of dust, or a dream,
entered my eye, this eye shed its drop of salt. And when
a cruel thorn raked my skin
the blood flowed red as your own!
Yes, exactly like you I was cruel, I
yearned for tenderness, for power,
for gold, for pleasure and pain.
Like you I was mean and anguished,
solid in peacetime, drunk in victory,
and staggering, haggard, in the hour of failure.
Yes, I was a man like other men,
nourished on bread, on dreams, on despair. Oh, yes,
I loved, I wept, I hated, I suffered,
I bought flowers and did not always
pay my rent. Sundays I went to the country
to cast for unreal fish under the eye of God,
I bathed in the river
that sang among the rushes and I ate fried potatoes
in the evening. And afterwards, I came back for bedtime
tired, my heart weary and full of loneliness,
full of pity for myself,
full of pity for man,
searching, searching vainly upon a woman’s belly
for that impossible peace we lost
some time ago, in a great orchard where,
flowering, at the center,
is the tree of life.
Like you I read all the papers, all the bestsellers,
and I have understood nothing of the world
and I have understood nothing of man,
though it often happened that I affirmed
the contrary.
And when death, when death came, maybe
I pretended to know what it was, but now truly
I can tell you at this hour,
it has fully entered my astonished eyes,
astonished to understand so little-
have you understood more than I?
And yet, no!
I was not a man like you.
You were not born on the roads,
no one threw your little ones like blind kittens
into the sewer,
you did not wander from city to city
hunted by the police,
you did not know the disasters of daybreak,
the cattle cars
and the bitter sob of abasement,
accused of a wrong you did not do,
of a murder still without a cadaver,
changing your name and your face,
so as not to bear a jeered-at name,
a face that has served for all the world
as a spittoon.
A day will come, no doubt, when this poem
will find itself before your eyes. It asks
nothing! Forget it, forget it! It is nothing
but a scream, that cannot fit in a perfect
poem. Have I even time to finish it?
But when you trample on this bunch of nettles
that had been me, in another century,
in a history that you will have canceled,
remember only that I was innocent
and that, like all of you, mortals of this day,
I had, I too had a face marked
by rage, by pity and joy,
an ordinary human face!

I was inspired to create a song based on Preface in Prose called A Face Like Yours.

A Face Like Yours

Verse 1
I speak to you from what is left of me,
From a broken voice, from the dust I breathe.
My blood is dry on the stones of the road,
Let it not cry out, let it not be owed.
The hunt is done, the night has rung its bell,
Few words remain, but I’ll try to tell.

Pre-Chorus
When the thirst is gone, when hate is through,
When memory fades like morning dew—

Chorus
Remember this when I am gone,
When I am nettles you walk upon:
I had a face like yours, it’s true,
A mouth that prayed, an eye that knew
Salt from tears and red from pain,
A human heart, the same refrain.
Before I’m ash, before I’m air,
Know this once: I was there.

Verse 2
Like you, I wanted tenderness,
Power and gold, the ache, the mess.
I loved, I hated, I bought flowers cheap,
Missed my rent, lost my sleep.
On Sundays I chased unreal fish,
Bathed in a river, made small wishes,
Ate fried potatoes, came home alone,
Heavy with pity, heavy as stone.

Pre-Chorus 2
I searched for peace where it never stays,
In the dark between desire and faith.

Chorus
Remember this when I am gone,
When I am nettles you walk upon:
I had a face like yours, it’s true,
Hands that reached, a heart that broke too.
I was cruel, I was kind,
Strong in peace, drunk in triumph, blind in decline.
Before the silence, before the air,
Know this once: I was there.

Bridge
I read the papers, the words, the lies,
Claimed understanding, but saw with closed eyes.
And when death came, I thought I knew its name,
But it filled my sight with unanswered flame.
Tell me—tell me true, my friend—
Have you understood more in the end?’

Verse 3
No—here we part, for this is the truth:
You were not born hunted, starved of proof.
No one threw your children away,
No cattle cars at the break of day.
You kept your name, you kept your face,
Mine was a curse the world erased.

Chorus (Quiet, then rising)
Still remember this when I am gone,
When history’s clean and I’m trampled on:
I was innocent—this I swear,
And like you all, I had my share
Of rage and joy and fragile grace,
An ordinary human face.

Outro
This song asks nothing—let it fall,
It’s just a scream, not perfect at all.
But if it finds you, someday, somewhere,
Pause your step, and remember:
I was a man.
I was alive.
I had a face—
Like yours.

Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Let me know which version you like the most and why. My favorite is #3.