They were young and looking for employment
This was Budapest in 1944
Sitting in the waiting room in the office of the Consulate
Two young people who’d never met before
The Consul claimed he’d know a cheat or scoundrel
Claimed he’d know just by looking in their eyes
Had no time for foreigners or scandals
Or the authorities giving him advice
Through your blood shall you live
Two young people struck up a conversation
Small talk in a crowded waiting room
Both trying to hide their agitation
Before they lied in their respective interviews
They were lying but there was a kind of knowing
A spark of something undefined
His name was called he approached with some foreboding
But he left the office with his permits signed
Through your blood shall you live
She looked to him to give her reassurance
“Is he the bastard he has the reputation for?”
He smiled and asked to meet her at St Stephen’s
Under the Bell Tower that afternoon at 4
She wasn’t sure why she agreed to an encounter
He was handsome but strolling with a stranger wasn’t wise
Both of them were brand new out-of-towners
But there was something so familiar in his eyes
Through your blood shall you live
He left the Polish Consulate whistling softly
He’d been running for a long time without rest
All he wanted was someone to hold him calmly
Let his guard down lay his head upon her breast
He waited in the Bell Tower Square impatiently
The clock struck 4 and then a quarter past
It wasn’t safe for him to loiter aimlessly
He was about to leave when she came at last
Through your blood shall you live
The Siege of Budapest had not begun yet
They walked the boulevard in the autumn sun
As dangerous for them as Russian roulette
The danger was what they carried in their blood
Her mother her father and her little brother
Had been taken she’d seen enough to know they were dead
Her sister had escaped somehow or other
She survived by trusting nothing no-one said
Through your blood shall you live
What he wanted most to ask was very risky
They talked of this and that and such and such
Would he be the victim of mistaking her identity
In the end temptation proved too much
Now we’re getting to the wonder
The part we’d listen to so eagerly
When your grandfather asked your grandmother
“Are you Jewish?” and her eyes flashed and she snapped,” How dare you ask me?”
But your grandfather sang to her very softly
The opening line of the Shema Yisrael
And your grandmother finished off the prayer that he had started
They fell into each other’s arms & there ends the tale
Through your blood shall you live