Renewal / Naomi Shemer

With the end of Tishrei holidays, we begin to slide into the working routine of a new year.

Naomi Shemer wrote a wonderful song about that, which is called "Renewal" (Hitkhadshut / התחדשות). Whenever I hear it, it strikes a chord with me. You may find the Hebrew lyrics here.

Naomi Shemer wrote, translated and composed more than two hundred songs, most of them in extremely simple, lucid language (although spiced with allusions to the Jewish sacred literature, in which she was knowledgeable to a remarkable degree). Overall, her work is remarkably meaningful; in spite of never being a member of the clique of Israeli classics, she enjoyed popular admiration by the common Israelis.

במסע שלא נגמר
בין שדות הצל ושדות האור
יש נתיב שלא עברת
ושתעבור
שעון החול, שעון חייך
מאותת לך עכשיו
למד-דלת, למד-הא, למד-וו.

In the never-ending journey,
Light and darkness interleaved,
There's a path you've not yet followed,
And this time you will,
The sand-glass, our lives' measure,
signals now as it proceeds -
thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six.

(Tr. by yours humbly)

The numerals in the original Hebrew are text are the traditional gematria (lamed-vav = 36). Naomi Shemer probably speaks of the Cabbalistic belief that a person's prime age is 36.

Here is a recording of the song, performed by Ofra Haza:

Fastidious Horses / Vladimir Vysotsky

Today I will write of a great modern Russian poet, Vladimir Vysotsky. A prominent theatre actor in his own right, his real fame originated in a corpus of approximately 500 poems, written to be sung under the accompaniment of a Russian string guitar.

Musically, as songs, these works were usually very basic, almost always set in the same minor scale, melodically simple and avoiding complex guitar technique.

The lyrics are another matter entirely. Vysotsky employs different stratas of regular, everyday speech (including the Russian criminal jargon, "fenya", illiterate women's speech, 'proletariat speech', 'intelligent Soviet citizen speech'), however beneath it is a powerful undercurrent of the author making a point - and often having a very good swing at it. Almost all songs were performed by the author; when employing the different stratas of speech, he masterfully accented them, achieving perfect intonation, ranging from straight-out parody to profound drama.

Vysotsky himself was a highly educated man (which was desirable for theatre actors of his time, unlike much of what's hot in Hollywood or the Israeli show industry today). He was a patriot, and as all Soviet citizens, fearful from the KGB. However his sense of poetic honesty often brought him to mention the inhumanity and insincerity of the regime, usually not head-on. What appears to the Western observer as mild and casual critique, was quite acrimonious in Soviet standards. However, due to his popularity Vysotsky himself did not suffer personal persecution, besides not being allowed to perform officially for most of his life. Instead, his recordings had to be distributed via bootleg channels.

Personally, Vysotsky was extremely temperamental, fiery and unstable. He was an alcoholic and probably also a drug user. This led to his early death at age of 43. The song I bring here - 'Capricious Horses', 'Кони привередливые' - appears to be based on his personal feeling of going over the edge, several years prior to his death.

• Original lyrics in Russian


• Unruly Horses by Kathrine and Bruce Hamilton. Notable for its high poetic language.


• Capricious Horses by Ilya Shambat - sounds a bit easier.

I also attach a video of a performance by Vysotsky himself. I saw once a comment (I'm not sure if on this video or another one of the same song) - some lady wrote that 'seems he really means it'. He sure did.

The Ballad of John, Yoko and Arik

My friend John corrected me regarding the release of the song - it only appeared as a single and on Past Masters Vol 2., never on the White Album. John - I bow to thy higher wisdom. -Yours truly, October 19th, 2008

The song I bring to you this time is called "The Ballad Of John and Yoko", which appeared for the first time on the Beatles' White Album as a single in 1969. A link to the lyrics.(wait, there's more below the clip!)



It turns out that Arik Einstein, arguably the father of Israeli pop-rock, recorded a number of Beatles songs, which he translated in the characteristically ironic mood.

His version is called "היה לנו טוב, נהיה לנו רע", which translates as "It was once good, it became worse". You may see the lyrics under this link.
Of worth is the following stanza:

ג'ון ויוקו הם על הכיף-כיפאק
אייבי נתן גם כם נחמד
אולי הם רק סתם שיש בהם דם
וגם אולי זה כבר הגיע הזמן

This translates as -

John and Yoko are both OK,
Abie Natan's very nice too
Their plethora is showing its signs,
But maybe it is really the time

(Tr. by yours truly. I wasn't actually aware of the medical meaning of 'plethora' until I had to translate this)

YouTube hosts a recording of Arik Einstein performing it, however it amused me more to bring the video version of the song, recorded by the punk band "Safed Elders" , in Hebrew "זקני צפת", "Ziknei Zfat" (notorious for their masterpiece "שישי שבת", "Weekend").



So here your are. For the sake of proper credit, "The Ballad Of John & Yoko" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, lyrics translated as "It was once good, it became worse" by Arik Einstein, recording by "The Elders of Safed".

Joyous Song / Jacob Orland, Mordechai Zeira / שיר שמח / יעקב אורלנד, מרדכי זעירא

Today I chose to mention 'Joyous Song', one of the classics of Israeli popular music.

It was written in 1954, "on high orders", following a massacre of the passengers of an Israeli bus at the Scorpions' Ascent in the Negev by Fedayun guerrillas.

A nice translation of the lyrics may be found at Yahoo answers.

קישור למילים

שיר זה נכתב במקור "בהוראה מלמעלה" בעקבות הרצח האכזרי של נוסעי אוטובוס ישראלי במעלה עקרבים בשנת 1954 על-ידי פדאיון מצריים.

זמר שכזה / יענקלה רוטבליט, נורית הירש

לאחרונה נתקלתי בשיר ישראלי נפלא, הלא הוא "זמר שכזה".

ברצוני לפרוט אחדות מהסיבות שאהבתי אותו: ראשית אינו נוגה (וזאת בניגוד לנימה המינורית של רבים משירינו האהובים), אלא להפך אופטימי. שנית, בניגוד לשיממון הנפוץ של ארבע רבעים מרובעים ומסוגרים, המנגינה דווקא מכילה תערובת יפה של 4/4 ו-6/6 וביניהן סינקופות ממוקמות היטב. לבסוף, השיר מנוסח טוב, שומר על שפה נקייה ויציבה ואינו מתיימר להיות יותר משיר עממי שמח, כאילו שנדרש יותר מזה.

קישור למילים

מילים אחרונות / לאה גולדברג

א

קר לי מאוד. הגוף לרגלי
כאדרת קרועה. ביד עיפה
אני רושמת
שורה אחרונה של שיר.
כבר במאה השמינית
על שפת הנהר הצהוב
ישב משורר שידע
את מילת הסיום.

ב

מה יהיה בסופנו? השמים
עמדו מלכת.
אלמלא השעון שתקתק
לא ידענו
שכה רחוקים אנו כבר
מן הבוקר.
איזה זרע ישאו הרוחות באביב?
איזה פרח
יצמח על קברנו?
אני אתפלל
שתהיה זאת נורית צהבה.
לפנים
קטפתי אותה בהרים.
מה יהיה בסופנו?

ג

מה יהיה בסופנו?
שני נערים ברחוב
שרים שיר.
בשני חלונות ברחוב
כבר הודלק אור.
שתי אניות בנמל
מפליגות בלילה.
שתי ידי בשתי ידיך
קרות.
מה יהיה בסופנו?

ד

מה יהיה בסופנו? אותות הלילה
יפים אך פשרם סתום. הרוח
מגלגל בשמים את חשוק הכסף.
ירח קדמון! איך שגו כולמו -
האוהבים התמימים וחרטומי מצרים.
עכשיו פסקה את פסוקה הדממה.
ואנחנו
מה יהיה בסופנו?

ה

הכאב
ברור כאור היום.
נעלה מכל ספק,
שלם כאמונה.

---

השיר הולחן על-ידי אשר ביטנסקי, עובד על-ידי אילן וירצברג והושר על-ידי נורית גלרון.