Remember, by Emma Lazarus (1866)

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Emma Lazarus

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23 December 2025 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, memento mori, Paraliturgical yizkor, Prayers as poems, יזכור yizkor

Source (English)	Adaptation (English)	Translation (Hebrew)
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth; while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1)		וּזְכֹר֙ אֶת־בּ֣וֹרְאֶ֔יךָ בִּימֵ֖י בְּחוּרֹתֶ֑יךָ עַ֣ד אֲשֶׁ֤ר לֹא־יָבֹ֙אוּ֙ יְמֵ֣י הָֽרָעָ֔ה וְהִגִּ֣יעוּ שָׁנִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֣ר תֹּאמַ֔ר אֵֽין־לִ֥י בָהֶ֖ם חֵֽפֶץ׃ (קהלת יב:א)
REMEMBER.	REMEMBER.	וּזְכֹר.
Remember Him, the Only One, Now, ere the years flow by, — Now, while the smile is on thy lip, The light within thine eye.	Remember Him, the only One, Now, ere the years flow by; Now, while the smile is on thy lip, The light within thine eye;	וּזְכֹר אוֹתוֹ, אֶחָד, יָחִיד, עַד כׇּל־יוֹם יַעֲבֹר, כׇּל־עוֹד חִיּוּךְ עַל הַשָּׂפָה וּבְעֵינֶֽיךָ אוֹר.
Now, ere for thee the sun have lost Its glory and its light. And Earth rejoice thee not with flowers, Nor with its stars the Night.	Now, ere for thee the sun have lost Its glory and its light; Or earth rejoice thee not with flowers, Nor with its stars the night.	נָא־עַד קַרְנֵי הָדָר וְאוֹר סְמוּיִים מֵהַחַמָּה, עַד בַּל־תָּשִׂישׂ מִכּוֹכָבִים אוֹ פִּרְחֵי אֲדָמָה.
Now, while thou lovest Earth, because She is so wondrous fair With daisies and with primroses. And sunlit, waving air;
And not because her bosom holds Thy dearest and thy best, And some day will thyself enfold In calm and peaceful rest.
Now, while thou lovest violets. Because mid grass they wave, And not because they bloom upon Some early-shapen grave.
Now, while thou lovest trembling stars, But just because they shine, And not because they’re nearer one Who never can be thine.
Now, while thou lovest music’s strains, Because they cheer thy heart, And not because from aching eyes They make the tear-drops start.
Now, while thou lovest all on earth, And deemest all will last, Before thy hope has vanished quite, And every joy has past.	Now, while thou lovest all on earth, And deemest all will last, Before thy hope has vanished quite, And every joy has past,—	כׇּל־עוֹד תֹּאהַב אֶת־כׇּל־דָּבָר בָּאָרֶץ וּמִשְׁכּוֹ, לִפְנֵי תֹּאבַד כׇּל־תִּקְוָתְךָ וְגִיל יָגִיל עַד־כֹּה,
Remember Him, the Only One, Before the days draw nigh When thou shalt have no joy in them, And praying, yearn to die.	Remember Him, the only One, Before the days draw nigh, When thou shalt have no joy in them, And praying, yearn to die.	וּזְכֹר אוֹתוֹ, אֶחָד, יָחִיד, לִפְנֵי קָרֵב הַיּוֹם שֶׁהַשִּׂמְחָה תִּזְנָחֲךָ וּמוֹתְךָ הַפִּדְיוֹם.

“Remember” by Emma Lazarus was written 20 January 1866 and first published in her chapbook, Poems and Translations (1866), page 54. The poem was adapted in an abridged form for a hymn by Rabbi J. Leonard Levy in his The Children’s Service for Use in Religious Schools (1902/1904). (The melody it was adapted for composed by H.S. Cutter as found on page 172 for James Montgomery’s “Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom” (1860, here entitled “A Wise Heart”).

Source(s)

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

From a family of musicians, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer believes that creative art is one of the most powerful ways to get in touch with the divine. He composes music and poetry in Hebrew and English. (He also authors his own original works and transcribes Hebrew and Aramaic text, adding niqqud and t'amim as needed.) Isaac runs a Jewish music transcription service, which will transcribe and set any Jewish music in any language, recorded or written. Contact his service on Facebook or via his music blog.

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was a Sefaradi Jewish-American poet, writer, translator, and Georgist from New York City. Her sonnet "The New Colossus" (1883), was inscribed and installed in 1903 on a bronze plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Upon the proscriptive May Laws of 1881 Lazarus rose to the defense of Russian-Jewish immigrants in powerful articles contributed to The Century (May, 1882, and February 1883). Lazarus became more interested in her Jewish ancestry after reading the George Eliot novel Daniel Deronda, and as she heard of the Russian pogroms that followed the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. As a result of this antisemitic violence, thousands of destitute Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from the Russian Pale of Settlement to New York. Lazarus began to advocate on behalf of indigent Jewish refugees. She helped establish the Hebrew Technical Institute in New York to provide vocational training to assist destitute Jewish immigrants to become self-supporting. In 1883, she founded the Society for the Improvement and Colonization of East European Jews. An important forerunner of the Zionist movement, Lazarus argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland thirteen years before Theodor Herzl began to use the term "Zionism." Contact with the Jewish emigrés from Russia led her to study Hebrew, Torah, Judaism, and Jewish history. Her Songs of a Semite (1882) is considered to be the earliest volume of Jewish-American poetry.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

Remember, by Emma Lazarus (1866)

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