Source of funeral "prayer"

Rating: Null/10 (29 November 2009)

Several commentaries on Defiance quote the funeral "prayer" pronounced by the character Shimon Haaretz: "We have no more prayers, no more tears; we have run out of blood. Choose another people. We have paid for each of Your commandments; we have covered every stone and field with ashes. Sanctify another land. Choose another people. Teach them the deeds and the prophesies. Grant us but one more blessing: take back the gift of our holiness." None of the commentators, however, seem to have realized that these are reworked lines from Irving Howe's translation of Kadya Molodowsky's 1945-46 Yiddish poem "Eyl-khanun" (God of Mercy).