Yehu Yaron-She

I first knew that I wanted to write about Yehu Yaron when I heard sometime in May his double-single "This Great Abyss"/"I Know How to Deal with History". I couldn't decide which song I liked better so I decided to wait for a clip or the album, whatever came first. Now his album "The Self-Persuading Artist" is here and available to buy or stream, as well as another single: "She". After listening to the album from start to finish I realized that I have to talk about the album as a whole instead of focusing on a specific song and because the lyrics are such an important part of the album, I ended up translating all of the songs. I had so much fun because except for a few difficult words here and there, Yaron writes clear and precise texts which (I hope) are easily understood in English. Translating his songs really felt like a journey (which might still need corrections) in which I came to have a much better understanding of Yaron's rich inner world.
I heard "The Self-Persuading Artist" right after I heard the new Kanye West album-mainly because it was the middle of the night and Kanye's album was so disturbing that I needed something to help calm me down-I thought I would hear just a song or two but I ended up listening to the whole album while closely reading the lyrics. If there's an album to hear at 4:00 a.m it's this one-it starts out very dark (and in a way a perfect transition after Kanye), you get really lost in its depths and dark issues but eventually rise up to the surface ready for the new day and with a much-needed new perspective. Maybe I've been reading too many music reviews but I couldn't help but see some very interesting parralels between Kanye and Yehu which help understand the main differences between the works.
Yaron has said that the album is a documentation of the period in which it was written. During this period Yaron and his wife waited for the birth of his first child, a daughter. In addition, Yaron suffered from an outbreak of the terrifying desease Multiple Sclerosis. Yaron shared with the student radio station "Kol HaCampus" his main influences in the process of the album which include the controversial Curzio Malaparte and gospel slave songs like this one.
I find it very interesting that Kanye and Yaron wrote such powerful and intense music right before the birth of their daughters. It's as if they wanted complete closure of their past lives before beginning a new life-changing phase in which they will have total responsibility for a human being, maybe at the risk of losing creativity? Yehu sings quite a lot about his relationship with his wife and it's really beautiful how in love they seem to be. There seems to be a real partnership between them based on quite a few years of love and friendship. Kanye's story is a bit different and you can fill in the facts from the tabloids. It's been written that the album is a kiss-off to bachelorhood and there's a strong sense of things happening way too fast. There's also (as always with Kanye) a very self-centered view of "me against the world" unlike Yaron's "we'll get through the world together" vibe.
Yaron infuses unlikely genres, for example gospel music, to create his own sound and style. I'm not very familiar with gospel music used in most Israeli music but it sounds so right in Yaron's music and it's very original. I think Kanye does a similar thing with his samples of electronic music which gives his music a signature sound and blurs music boundaries.
Curzio Malaparte is an Italian writer who was a part of the fascist party but became one of its biggest critics and turned to communism. He detailed in his books the perils of life during war and later on critiqued the middle and upper class culture. I can't help but see some of the latter in Kanye's songs as just that-especially the infamous line "hurry up with those damn croissants" from "I am a God". However, Yaron took two texts from Malaparte: "Regarding Their Sweet Death" and "The Dead" which couldn't be further from Kanye's persona-especially the lines "We don't need another small Jesus/It's not very difficult to be Jesus today".
But the main parralel I see is in how they present themselves as performers. I first came across Yaron through his amazing performance of "Everyone is So Quiet" for the Indie City project. I was impressed by how he used his whole body and voice to convey his feelings yet I was also taken aback-it was a bit too strange for me-too "in your face". But I found myself humming the chorus and remembering the lyrics, realizing how painfully honest they are. I was never a big fan of Kanye or his music but I was very impressed with his SNL performance of "New Slaves"-it was uncomfortable to watch and hear, but you couldn't move your eyes from the screen-and he was talking about an uncomfortable truth in a very total way. Unfortunately, I didn't get the same experience while listening to his album-I was too distracted by the shallow lyrics and although it left a strong impression on me, it didn't feel like an enlightened one (and I'm not quite sure it was supposed to). However, Yaron's album is just that-an enlightening experience on so many different levels.
I feel like I've said enough even though there seems to be so much more to add. All I can say is listen to the album, read the lyrics and see for yourself whether you disagree or not.
*By the way, Yaron seems to be everywhere these days (lucky for us!)-he sings and plays contrabass on Aviv Guedj's excellent new album "Children of Immigrants" and also produced Kalbey Ruah's debut album (whose lead singer, Hila Ruach, composed "I Know How to Deal with History").

1. This Great Abyss

Inside it's as if everything's okay

Outside it's as if the sky is falling

And you don't see the end of the water

In this great abyss

All of the fire that burns inside me

All this fire I'll give to you

If you'll come down with me

Into this great abyss

All of the light that shines in me

All of my light I'll give to you

If you'll come down with me

Into this great abyss

Outside there are seven bad years

Outside everyone is applauding

All of the cities all over the world

Are closed and besieged

There isn't one healthy medicine

There isn't one doctor who knows

What's the truth and what's half the truth

And what are simple songs

And the day is over

All of the pain that hurts me

All this pain I'll give to you

If you'll come down with me

Into this great abyss

The dog barks but the dog is dumb

The law bites but the law has no teeth

Everything is old-we'll forget everything and become new

There's a weird attribute in the air

There are new birds in the sky

Someone turned back the time

But only my watch

And the day is over

All of this bitter sorrow

All of my sorrow I'll give to you

If you'll come down with me

Into this great abyss

The strong man makes a visit

The strong man always wants money

The strong man is used to getting what he wants

And soft eyes won't help

Holes in socks won't help

Again I lose everything because of something stupid

And the day is over

All of the fire that burns inside me

All this fire I'll give to you

If you'll come down with me

Into this great abyss

The whole city relocated

New cities moved in

A stranger smiles to me

From the window of the opposite building

They say hello to me and I'm not familiar

They speak to me and I don't hear

There are large grey clouds

Inside my head

And the day is over

All of these bitter tears

I'll give up the big abyss for you

If you'll stay with me

When the day is over

Inside it's as if everything's okay

Outside it's as if the sky is falling

And you don't see the end of the water

In this great abyss

2. She 

My illness requires how you are

And she roams through the record shelf

In every corner of the house she is hanging on the walls

My illness requires how you are

And the air gets too thin to think

And my thoughts breathe my air with me

All kinds of sick evils lie on the fence

Rages and tempers that belong to someone else

But the moment I open my mouth it's as if they come from me

I have a venomous snake under my bed

And a private hell dances on my roof

Every night, when I fall asleep, the house gets up and shakes

In mid-May the hand stopped working

And then came back and then stopped again and people died

But they stopped dying and began to die again

And a great miracle was never here

In the theatre I saw a five year old boy

Recite someone else's opinions

While an older kid bangs his head against the wall

She: Reality sets over me

She:  The bad ending of a stupid movie

She: The end of each balloon

She: There is a storm in the horizon

She: Stage lights which throw only black light

She: I give you a check and know that it will bounce

She: I have her, she has me

But I was first

Even when everyone realized in the end what's happening

It didn't help me understand, it just made me feel

That everyone is continuing to live and ceasing to live

And I remain stuck here in the middle

(I don't eat when I am full

I don't sleep when you're not here

Among people I know how to put on a happy face

Because at the end of the day I can suffer aloud)

3. I Know How to Deal with History

I know how to deal with history:

In darkness

In dampness

In full nudity

Partially controlling

Without electricity

Electricity distorts history

Your blood is a perfect bibliography

Write down conclusions on a note

Put it in the Western Wall

Put it in the polls

Put it in your motherskush

I know how to deal with history:

Run around family legends

A brave look over your shoulder

Your brother's blood is shouting in a universal grammar

While you are marking slots in a belt

Write an anthem

Announce independence

Sell everything that matters to you

Buy what's important to others

Make a verbal revolution without getting out of bed

Fall in the trap fall in the trap fall in the trap

I know how to deal with history:

With a mischief smile

With an erection

With the perished parents of one grandmother

With the infiltrated parents of a second grandmother

Without a grandfather

And mother will sing

And father will write

And the past will come true right in front of your face

Today I talked with many people

I was anxious and hyperactive

And when I got home my stomach ached

4. Regarding Their Sweet Death 

We don't need another small Jesus,

Any one of us can save the world.

Any woman can give birth to another Jesus,

Any one of us might climb on Mount Calvary

While whistling with pleasure, all of us can be condemned

With nails on a cross while a song is on our lips.

It's not very difficult to be Jesus in our day.

5. Dirt in the Ground (based on a translation to Tom Waits' Dirt in the Ground) 

What does it matter

A pink dream or a white lie

We'll all end in the same place when the time will come

The departing soul will not remember faces or names

Only the wind will remain to blow between the bones

When we all will be

In the end we all will be

In the end we all will be

In the end we all will be

Just dirt in the ground

It's blood that flows from the feather of a black falcon

I want to know if I am the sky or just a bird

Because in Eden there is no room

And a fire broke out in the Underworld

We are harnessed forever

And condemned to carry the burden

Because we all will be

Then we all will be

In the end we all will be

In the end we all will be

Dirt in the ground

So the murderer smiled

With nerves of concrete

A groan was heard when he rose to the gallows

And all the hearts in the crowd pounded loudly

Pounded quickly

He is swaying above everyone and the hanger says

That we all will be

In the end we all will be

In the end we all will be

In the end we all will be

Just dirt in the ground

Cain murdered Abel,

Lifted a stone, blood spilled

The skies opened and the whole world thundered

How will there be revival of the bones

Even when the valley is full of meat?

Ask in the market or in the palace

And everyone will say

That we all will be

In the end we all will be

Because we all will be

In the end we all will be

Just dirt in the ground

6. My Love is Pure Truth 

My love is pure truth

Built from small sins

And in the rest of the world a complete darkness

She knows how to sing songs

Which dance themselves alone

And in the rest of the world a complete darkness

My love rises to the roof

And shoots the birds

And in the rest of the world a complete darkness

She grew up in the woods with a pack of wolves

She dances only strange dances

And brings the rain

She has a new second name

Which she does not know how to pronounce

And in the rest of the world a complete darkness

Anything can happen

And we'll continue to dance and dance

More and more, more and more

My love is absolute truth

She has a supply of glowing moons

Which she hangs over the city

And in the rest of the world a complete darkness

My love is the genius of the generation

She knows by heart

And in the rest of the world a complete darkness

She is almost never wrong, or cries, or is angry

She is very quick and very concentrated

So she always wins

She doesn't carry a gun

She kills with her hands

And in the rest of the world a complete darkness

Sentences which she said

Are taught in schools

And in the rest of the world a complete darkness

She knows secrets. Deep and large

She carries in her womb my daughter

She teases with eternity

She was born far from here

And she lives here because of me

And in the rest of the world a complete darkness

8.   The Snake Pit

Today I was able to escape from the snake pit

I've been through difficult days

In the snake pit

And now I'm free

With a short memory I recall

An ugly and bitter moment

In which I didn't know where I was going

The lights from outside were so beautiful

I knew I had to go outside

From afar I might have heard whispers

Perhaps around me they knew something was not right

And a broken wind blew

And a broken sun shone

And a broken feeling became a broken moment

Between us

But I was able to escape the snake pit

And despite some difficult days

In the snake pit

It's now behind me

Even in quite peace there is a wall that collapses

There are screams into a pillow

There's an alliance under the table

In the weirdest dream I did not believe it was possible

To divert me against me

I am mad but I am

A self-persuading artist

I lecture in schools

And I have no regrets

I have no regrets

An hour a day I work

On having no regrets

But when each star falls

It illuminates quarrels and schemes

Everywhere I go

I cannot help but see

The snake pit

I come to you with sacks of sand

And spread them around and the whole house becomes a desert

My lies are big

But I do not take up space

And I can scream quietly

If you hear whispers, perhaps

They are starting now to discuss our affairs

But the wind around us is good

And the sun above us is good

And it begins to appear that good can also happen

To us

9.Your Myth 

Tonight I dreamt about you

You invited me for a drink

And of course it's impossible to keep up with you

We sat in a big empty house

Just exercise-bikes

Are faced against a huge window

And all of your gloomy singers are in the background

And above all

A conversation we held

When your dog died

I never talked with you like that

And I always talked with your myth

And you really cried

And I felt that you didn't cry just about him

As if you adopted a dog

So that you would be able to cry when he dies

About everything you adopted to lose

Tonight I dreamt about you

You were sick of the house, you wanted us to go out

We went to get a tattoo

It's the middle of the night but in dreams

Dizengoff is crowded and bustling

The tattooist says

That with you it's easy

You have a thousand tattoos under your skin

You only need to press on the right place

And copy

You told him to press on the right place and say

What's drawn in your heart

And all because of a conversation we held

When your dog died

I never talked with you like that

I always talked with your myth

And you really cried and I felt that you didn't cry just about him

As if you adopted a dog so that you would be able to cry when he dies

About everything you adopted to lose

(I sometimes imagine you

Joyfully skipping from bad to worse

Falling in such an enviable way

Aiming and hitting all the lost causes

It's so sad

And it's so beautiful

And it's not real)

10. The Dead 

The dead are sullen, stubborn, wild.

The dead are stupid, capricious and arrogant

Like babies or like women.

The dead are crazy. It's bad and bitter if the dead

Hates the living. Bad and bitter if he falls in love with him.

Bad and bitter if the living insults the dead,

If he hurts his self-love,

If he violates his dignity.

The dead are jealous and demand revenge. Are not afraid

Of anybody, are not afraid of anything,

Not of beatings, not of injuries, not of the advantage

Of the enemy's number.

They don't even fear death.

11. On This Side of the Sky 

I can't wake you up anymore when you dream bad dreams

Because afterwards you don't fall asleep all night

Behind the eyelids your lights are bright

You are searching for deals and there are all kinds of signs

You need answers and it is only night

The neighborhood kids are singing strange songs

And their parents are digging a hole at the square

They swear, it's important to them, they keep shouting

They've lost everything and somehow they keep losing

It hasn't begun and it's been long gone

In the world it just gets a bit darker each night when we sleep

I see it in the morning in your glance

Someone I love died three days ago

And I'm still awake and I'm still alive and I love you so much

On this side of the sky it's already beginning to get cold

But you can see that the sun is trying

You sent a crow with a note and this morning he came back

His feathers fell and his beak broke

At least he probably handed the note

In the world it just gets a bit darker each night, when we sleep

I see it in the morning in your glance

Someone I love died three days ago

And I'm still awake and I'm still alive and I love you so much

I can't talk to you anymore while you're asleep

Once you wouldn't wake up so easily

It's important for me to talk to you even when you do not hear

We talk during the day, it's not the same

So I always wake you

12. Up to the Thin Capillaries

Up to the thin capillaries

By moonlight

On one night

Body separated from soul

And only the stars

See everything up to the last detail

Up to the thin capillaries

Alone on the road

To nobody's eyes

They threw you by the way

But the facts

They buried nicely up to the last detail

You are a nightmare

Which in the end someone else

Wakes up in panic

Up to the thin capillaries

Sophisticated words hide decay

It's not just bureaucracy

It's not just fatigue

It's bad up to the very last detail

You are a nightmare

And at your end someone else

Woke up in panic

And that's all-

Everyone knows how to go back to sleep

Up to the thin capillaries

You stole a car, you hurt the body

But long before you were unwanted

And illegal, up to the last detail

Up to the thin capillaries

You're already dead

You don't care about anything

We'll stay here

Drunk from success and lost-

Up to the last detail

13. Everyone is So

Don't lie

Don't lie

Everyone is so quiet all of a sudden

Everyone is so quiet all the time

The wind from the sea has no chance against this street

Try waking up morning

Here it's always last night

There was something, no longer-you have no idea what it was

Only that everyone is so quiet all of a sudden

Maybe an apologizing smile in the corner of the mouth or an honest condolence

No, everyone is so quiet all of a sudden

Everyone is so quiet all the time

Don't lie

Don't lie

And the high ceilings in old flats

It's the biggest fraud in this city

Comes some piece of shit and divide's his father's flat into seven detention cells

With the toilet in the hallway

And takes three and a half a month

And it seems as if there's room because the ceiling is far from the floor

High ceilings

And it's clear to everyone

But

Everyone is so quiet all of a sudden

Everyone is so quiet all the time

Don't lie

Don't lie

The headlines in the paper strike me with lightning

Like lies they told us when we were kids

And the sky is gray with worry and full of bad intentions

All the whores of Ben Yehuda

Towards the beginning of Allenby

Sing beautiful and sad songs in French

A beautiful and yellow sun sings to me sad and beautiful songs in Biblical Hebrew

The entire street dons a grand appearance

Saturdayish

The smell of burnt feathers from the Carmel Market disappears

And everyone is preparing for the night

Suddenly

The head is lighter

The words weigh less

Every sentence has one hidden meaning at most

The majority stays unconscious, not aiming anywhere

There's no danger from home, no knife in the back

Everything is very frontal

Everything is very honest

Frontal and honest hatred is the closest thing to silence that I know of

But

Everyone is so quiet all of a sudden

Everyone is so quiet all of the time

Don't lie

Don't lie

Sometimes the truth is so ugly that it's a lie

I want to fulfill expectations with one hand and to pull out hairs from the ass with the other

There are days when

The birds on the tree by the house don't want to chirp

When they finally chirp it sounds like a curse in Romanian

But everyone is so quiet all of the time

So I write songs that won't be composed

And I compose songs that weren't written

And I say the truth, I say the truth

And I say the truth, I say the truth

But

Everyone is so quiet all of a sudden

Everyone is so quiet all the time

Everyone is so quiet all the time

14. Not Even Real 

Already evening I spread a thin blanket

Over all the awful and terrible things I did

Like a field of dandelions

Above an old cemetery

Light rises in all the balconies

And there are whistles

And sticky versions to songs I used to love

Love can die

When you stick on the wrong rhythm

I want to cry

But there is no pain strong enough

To penetrate my skin

I'm immune so well now

Nothing will pass through

Everyone I meet

Right away checks my pulse

Lift up your hand just a few centimeters

Above my hand

And don't touch, just feel

The negative energy

It will calm down in your hand

And I will be able to go to sleep

The sun which shines in my head

Illuminates the corners

That I want to forget

My demons have grown

And they have learned how to live in the light

Light rises in all the balconies

In Tel Aviv there are no balconies

Even since I was a kid

It's not polite to cling

On a memory that doesn't belong to you

I want to cry

But this urgent need

Is not even real

I'm not sure if crying

Is like running to the bathroom

Whimper as much as you want

Something stays

Lift up your hand

To check my temperature

Don't be so worried

I've been sick for almost two years

With a disease that doesn't exist

And if it's just in my head

It's not contagious

This jarring anger

Is not even real

I look scary but

I'm most scared of me

And my hated sits and laughs next to me

So I don't shut up

But everyone is so quiet all of a sudden

Like a field of dandelions