Playfulness, satirical bite, linguistic wit, fragility, charm, social commentary – Mascha Kaléko's verses are timeless and unique. They reflect the poet's life, which is emblematic of diaspora, uprooting, and enforced homelessness: birth in Galicia, flight to Germany/Berlin, expulsion from Germany/Berlin, "speechlessness" in America, return to Berlin, where she no longer recognizes her adopted home, isolation and renewed speechlessness in Israel, finally the pain of the deaths of her son and husband, and her own death in Switzerland.