At a loss of words to describe the sorrow I felt upon hearing of the tragedy at Majdal Shams, and upon seeing the names and faces of the 12 young victims, aged between 10 to 16. When I woke up with a heavy heart I felt the urge to hear this song and I've been thinking about it all day. It was originally performed by Chava Alberstein a few years after the Yom Kippur War, and this version, sung beautifully by Dikla and Akram Odeh, is part of a show by The Revolution Orchestra featuring 20 love songs performed in Hebrew and Arabic for the first time. From the show's description: "Through the translation into the other language, we will get closer and farther away, move between the familiar and the foreign, hear our love songs in a different way, and create a common dialogue."
Brilliant translation and explanations by Youtube user Yelix2
Look who came to the studio...to clean!
I fled Moscow, arrived in Ashdod
Moshe, Omer, I wan to dance (a reference to a song by Moshe Peretz and Omer Adam)
Looking for an Oligarch to buy me more furs.
If you want a plastic bag, that's ten agorot more. (many Russian immigrants work as cashiers)
Blat!
Let me tell you just ONE thing:
I live in a one-room apartment with my grandma, that's TWO of us.
Been practicing ballet since I was THREE, my dad is my mentor.
I'm sliding off a pole while doing a split and waiting for you on all FOUR.
Everyone says I'm the heart of the group,
yellow and black are in my soul (Beitar Jerusalem team colors)
I parked on the sidewalk, put more amba in my order! (of falafel, presumably)
I got a haircut like Ronaldo, I use 6 kg of hair gel.
I married Meital, she thinks she's Giselle (Bundchen I guess?)
I kiss mezuzas, charms, girls, not minors!
I'm crazy about weddings, I don't work with receipts.
I was the Messi of the neighborhood until my knee got injured,
Eyal Golan is an angel, and Bibi is the king! (a singer and a right-wing prime minister)
Do you have almond milk?
I live in a bubble, my parents pay the bills.
I do yoga, TRX, and equipment plates.
My dad made an exit and bought me a land lot in Karkur (affluent community north of TLV)
I donated the old Stella McCartney to an Eritrean from Darfur.
Subscribed to Ha'Aretz, don't eat gluten, sculpt in edamame. (left-wing newspaper, Japanese snack)
I write poetry and for inspiration, I listen to Nissim Garame. (singer)
Third generation from the Holocaust, the iPhone is generation 5.
When I hear a 'Tzeva Adom' (an alarm that warns citizens in the south of incoming Gaza missiles)
It reminds me that we are an occupying nation.
Chorus (taken from 'אין לי ארץ אחרת', a song by Gali Atari):
I won't be silent, for my land has changed her face. I won't give up on her, I will remind her, and I will sing in her ear until she opens her eyes.
I'm asking you for donations, charities, allowances,
in short, I'm burdening you with my commission charges only so I can fund the yeshivas.
I don't pay taxes, I took a pass on the army. (Haredi people often evade mandatory conscription)
What you make standing up, I earn while sitting (wordplay - the word for sitting is yeshiva).
Love thy neighbor like yourself, unless he's a foreigner.
Large shtreimel (round Hassidic hat), small head (a pejorative term for someone who doesn't think for himself)
I do as the Rabbi says.
That gemara shiur was awesome, now to watch some porno,
Oy Gevalt! I forgot Moshe-Tzvi in the Fiat Uno! (papa?)
Make some noise!
I'm a sucker for Eurovision, 24/7 on my phone
I've got 32K followers and a sea of low-confidence.
I stir hot-chocolate, I bit pillows (all euphemisms for gay) I'm provacשtive, אוחצ'ה
I had an aggressive father, that's why I'm passive!
Hair designer, fashion designer, eyebrow designer, annoying. (the words designer and annoying sound alike)
I made a Grinder profile because I'm horny for marriage.
??? (Don't get this line. something about cocaine lol)
I used to be religious, come to my apartment for some conversion therapy.
Chorus
Mister, mister, this was supposed to be my verse (also house) but I was deported. If anyone comes to visit bring me some red bamba! (candy no one likes).
You'll always see me with a smile on my face,
Even when someone dies because everything is from God.
In my mobile home in Hebron in front of the sofa in the living room
there's a picture of Yigal Amir and Baruch Goldstein the genius! (PM assassinator, Jewish terrorist)
I'm a mother of eight, we have values!
After dinner, we don't turn on screens (as in TVs and phones).
We go out into the garden and play together - five stones (kids' game)
at Arabs! (referring to religious Hilltop Youths rumored to throw stones at Palestinians)
Hafla! (party in Arabic)
I ride without a seatbelt on a stolen BMW,
With my one-and-only wife, and another wife and another wife (referring to polygamy among Bedouin)
I am the engineer of the 'Acts of Hostility' (a euphemism for terror attacks)
You ate hummus in Qaliqilia? You'll get indigestion! (words that sound alike)
I shoot at weddings! (Arab weddings often use gunfire to celebrate, though not as much anymore tbh)
I flock to the polling stations! (a reference to a racist remark by Netanyahu during the 2015 general elections, where he warned of Arab voters "Flocking to the polling stations")
A construction worker, a pharmacist, a McDonald's counter clerk in Mamiyya
Jews say kfiya (a word that means 'imposition', used to denote insufficient separation of church and state)
I say kufiya (Arab garment)
