Ever since the new lockdown was announced I've felt thrown out of balance. I'd gotten used to leading a quiet life while maintaining socially distanced connections with family and friends. Now the news is dominated by bickering politicians and there are comparisons with the failures of the Yom Kippur War. I'm also increasingly worried about what's going on in the U.S. as shockwaves of its political turmoil are felt around the world.
I came across this song a while ago, it was made as part of an alternative Memorial Day project and it feels eerily relevant today. I love the musical changes Nir Shlomo made to Rona Kenan's classic song from her debut album and his voice conveys honest emotion that's hard to find today. I found out on the "One Song" podcast that the song first started out as "Earthquake". Yizhar Ashdot, who produced Kenan's first album, saw the potential in the song but requested (well, actually demanded) it to be changed to Hebrew. He explained in the podcast that although Kenan sang beautifully in English, he felt that it created a distance with the audience and avoided intimacy. Interestingly enough, one of my favorite Rona Kenan songs is "My Prison by the Sea" (also very relevant for these chaotic days) so I'm glad that Kenan didn't abandon her roots. Yali Sobol, one of the writers of the new version, said that Kenan was surprisingly open to lyrical changes and it's interesting to see how the Hebrew song has its own separate identity from the original English version. The writer Alona Kamchi suggested the use of the word "Flood" as a more local term for a natural disaster. 'Flood' gives the love song a mythical feel and makes it much more contemplative and fitting for a public reckoning, which makes it especially relevant for this year's Yom Kippur.
If we survive the flood this time,
Every smile will be different, contaminated.
If I'll repeat this again and again and again
You'll stay for twenty years or until the end of the day.
We learned to wait, to give up, and how to be cautious, from every word.
And everything will suddenly freeze
If we'll have a moment to stop by a street corner
To embrace and to leave
As if it's possible to know how to let go
To love less.
With a wild smile I'll come back to collect debts
To break down walls and to wake you up
Although there is nothing more complete than the pain that is playing
In another song
And everything will freeze...
Every smile will be different, contaminated.
If I'll repeat this again and again and again
You'll stay for twenty years or until the end of the day.
We learned to wait, to give up, and how to be cautious, from every word.
And everything will suddenly freeze
If we'll have a moment to stop by a street corner
To embrace and to leave
As if it's possible to know how to let go
To love less.
With a wild smile I'll come back to collect debts
To break down walls and to wake you up
Although there is nothing more complete than the pain that is playing
In another song
And everything will freeze...
