Out of the trenches at night
They leaped, and death was bright
With fires that sang like a wooing
Of demon lovers undoing
The lives of a thousand men.
" Bozshe tzarya chrani! " — then,
" Gott mit uns! " — so they met,
There where the guns were set.
The thick smoke rifted and spread
Over the fallen, and fled
After the shadows that flew
Into the night anew.
Close to the guns they lay,
Waiting the dawn of a day
Too great for the living eye —
" Shema Yisrael Adnai " —
Whose was the voice that rang
Raptured and clear, and sang.

Prone on the river's sod
The glory of Israel's God?
The German shivered and turned
On his side, where the death-wound burned,
And listened, and heard close by —
" Elohenu Adonai
Echad! " — and then he crawled
Nearer the guns and called
Softly, " Jude! " and saw
The Russian. Then God's law,
Greater than hate and death,
Mingled the soldiers' breath:
" Shalom aleichem! " they cried —
" Shalom! " and so they died.
Breast to breast they clung,
Till the last stars flickered and swung
Out of their course, and the night
Was gone, and the sky grew bright.