Shlomi Shaban and Chava Albertstein - An Awakening Drill

Operation Protective Edge ended almost exactly 10 years ago and I've been thinking about it a lot this year and especially this past summer. I was 24, just starting my first serious job in Tel Aviv after mandatory army service and a university degree, and was worried about my friends who were serving in Gaza as reservists, not to mention friends whose lives were completely disrupted due to the constant rocket fire, as opposed to what we experienced in the center where there were daily rockets and sirens but for the most part we carried on as best as we could, with the war in the background. For citizens south of Tel Aviv it was a completely different story and the children who suffered from intense rocket fire are now young adults, many of them serving in the IDF alongside reservists who were soldiers back then. I can't help but also think of the children on the other side of the border- what has become of the young adults who were children in 2014? What will be of the young adults in 10 years, who were children in a terrible reality today? 

Each war has its own soundtrack and though released a few months before the war, this phenomenal song received significant airplay on the radio during that awful summer, fitting with the war atmosphere of the time. I only found out a few years ago that it uses a sample of the Yarkon Trio's 1964 cover of Peet Seeger's 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone', in the part where they sing 'When will they ever learn?'. When will we ever learn?

Where did you go my love?

I'm right beside you

Where is the mother, my mother?

You have been alone for some time

What about the good and soft sun?

It sunk as it rose

If so tell me, tell me if so

Everything is already told, stored, filed, and reported.

I hear horsemen again

You don't hear anything

And a bitter smell arises from the noise

And it will go and get stronger

Why am I cold, so cold?

It's not very complicated

You're familiar yet so far

You are next to yourself

I'm right beside you

If this is just a drill

It's truly a successful one

The skies are painted in vanilla

The horizon is ashen

Everything comes back redder

From the trenches and in the towers

Tell me, are we winning?

When exactly did all this happen?

While you all were writing songs

And what about them, if we're already talking?

They are left to those who remember

So basically, nothing happened

So basically, everything is in order

You were always willing to compromise

You are breaking my heart, I'm right beside you

If this is just a drill, it's truly a successful one

The skies are painted in vanilla

The horizon is ashen

Everything comes back redder, in stretchers and flowers

Tell me, are we? Tell me, are we?

Along the bank an old fox howls

Bootless commanders fell to pray

The silent wind shocks

A young girl escaped from the mosque

The darkness gathered and didn't descend

Shabak Samech - I Fall Down and Rise

I recently came across Jimbo J's moving cover of this song, as part of Beit Avi Chai's wonderful "Song of Hope" series. Some of the episodes are translated into English here. I rediscovered Shabak Samech's timeless hit from 2000 and just had to share this wild video, so fitting for these strange and challenging days. 

The road is long and winding

I fall down and rise

I will never stop walking

I fall down and rise

Passing one bridge after another

I fall down and rise

How long the road is...

I stand with my head raised

They say love is one in a million

They say there's no chance the sun will shine on me

They say I'll fall, that I'll run away

They say I'll be left alone

That I don't fit with life

Because I lack the desire for gold and jewels

I don't have the right cards

Maybe it's society that crumbles

If this place isn't right for rainbow seekers

For those who ignore the signs of the times

And where is my star?

People, I exist

To you I may seem without value

But I have a soul, I have a song, I have the way

The road is long and winding...

Before me a column of fire, behind me clouds of smoke

I left a city of metal behind, where am I going?

To a place where the sun is not hidden by buildings

Beyond the mountains to the fields of green

For there is a sweeter place than this

Where there is a longer time, as much as we need

A moment comes when we have to think

To spread our wings, say goodbye and leave

To a place where I can be myself

After 2000 years of exile, want to be free

Beyond the horizon, where the birds are singing

There I shall go and until then I'll sing

How long the road is, and how winding,

I do not stop walking, I can't stop

Leaving behind my fears and sorrow

Everything is all, I must continue

Everything that happens, I know it should

I am the fire that cannot be extinguished

the music will take me up and deep

The road is long, walking it is to live

The road is long and winding...

Every ending is a new beginning

Sorrow is a sign that happiness soon comes

I am not competing and not at war

My head's in the clouds, feet on the ground

 

The road is long and winding...

Flawless translation from LyricsTranslate

The Revolution Orchestra with Dikla and Akram Odeh - I Shall Speak to You

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." 

When you, pale from sorrow,

hide yourself in your silence,

let me talk to you,

and let me walk among your shadows,

to be with you.

I will not ask you why,

I will not bother your loneliness,

careful, a bit hesitating, 

with signs of care and loving-kindness,

I shall speak to you

There is strength in me, there is strength in me,

don't pity me

don't hinder your thorns from

scratching my legs.

When you, deadly tired,

cannot fall asleep in the dark,

in the hours when your nightmares

keep pursuing your dreams,

I will remain with you.

Near you, I am wandering,

Between your sleep and your wake,

My words are fragile,

My palms are tiny,

But they are by your side.

When I will see, or you will tell me,

with a soft whisper,

that your dead are gathering together,

I will bow my head too.

I will not ask you why...

Translation taken from LyricsTranslate

Yardena Arazi - Back Home

Yardena Arazi said in an episode of "One Song" about this song that it was born after she experienced the First Lebanon War up close and performed for troops there. She found herself singing "A Song for Peace" with an enthusiastic group of reserve soldiers and asked herself, as many Israelis were asking at the time, "What are we doing here?" She asked Ehud Manor to write her a song to capture the frustration with the ongoing war and the growing list of fallen soldiers, an all too familiar feeling. "Back home" has become associated with the return of the hostages and after almost 300 days it's time to return home.

Another year has passed,

another year of madness,

the weeds have grown in the path and the garden.

The wind sighed

opening the shutter

and banging the old wall,

as if calling:

Back home, back home,

it's time to return,

from the mountains

from foreign fields.

The day is fading and there is no sign.

Back home, back home,

before the light is dimmed.

Cold nights, 

bitter nights,

closing in now.

Until the dawn

I pray for you,

bound in the grip of fear

I hear steps.

Back home, back home,

because it hasn't yet been given

as was promised a long time ago.

Beautiful translation by Dimi Chris over at LyricsTranslate.

Riff Cohen - A Hole In The Heart

Wow Riff, thank you for sharing your pain and singing from your heart. Exactly what I needed to hear ♥

Discover more about Riff here.

You can't fill it

You can't change it

You can't make up for it

Only wipe the tears

I walk here and there

With a hole in the heart

And inside it pain

You can't fill it

You can't change it

You can't make up for it

Only wipe the tears

A hole in the heart

A hole in the heart

A hole in the heart

And inside it pain

I walk around day and night

With a hole in the heart

And inside it pain

You see, this is what I live with

Ever since childhood

Being a woman is not simple!

A hole in the heart...

You're not the one in the photo!

You're not who you said you were!

You're not who you thought you were!

You're not who you are!

You're not worth

Any pain

Any tear

Any sigh

Any angst

Any denial

Any crying

Any confusion

Anything at all!

A hole in the heart...

Excellent translation taken from the Youtube description

Yehudit Ravitz - Song With No Name

There's recently been a flood of new Israeli music, a welcoming sign, but I still find myself drawn to the familiar classics which have given me comfort in the past nine months. Shalom Hanoch wrote this beautiful song in memory of his nephew who died during his military service in a training accident in 1980. While I was aware of the song in the past, the lyrics understandably resonate differently, especially on uncertain days like today.

Brilliant translation by Youtube user @Trans_Lator:

For my song's echo resonating

My own postcard for sending

Course of life in bliss

Things I miss

Prayers which I hiss

For my song as a leaf is shaken

So unstable, forsaken

It's the dimmed out light, shown so right

All through the night

It is you in and out of my sight

As I stray, have crossed my way

Some pictures inside their frames

And some names, some names

You go into and out of my sight

Oh

Darkness all around

Wishing so

You could hear my sound

Just might, just might, just might

You go into and out of my sight

On my way, have met till day

Some scenery, tune and word

Portraits sad or glad

You go into and out of my sight

Yes

Silence all around 

Just in case 

You can hear my sound

Just might, just might, just might

You go into and out of my sight

Just might, just might, just might

You go into and out of my sight

For my song is the wind that's blowing

Open window for showing

My fresh air supply, laugh or cry

End for my fight

You go into and out of my sight

Adam - Don't forget

So sad to hear of pop star Adam's death at 64, after a long battle with lung cancer. He left behind this statement: "If you are reading these words, it means that I am in a world that is all good, that's how they say, I can't recommend it yet. I want to thank you for the wonderful and unbelievable journey in this life. I did a lot, I went for it, and I went to the limit in everything, in love, in friendships, in creation. I have a few unfinished dreams left but not a lot. Thank you for the love, thank you for every person I met, or influenced in one way or another, thank you for the life. If I wasn't able to help from below in returning the hostages, I will try to act from above. Be good, love you."

He performed this lovely song in 1989 for the Festigal, a Hannukah show for children, back when it was a song contest and unsurprisingly it won first place. We won't forget you Adam ♥

People make mistakes in the darkness, pouring rain

They are silent, they are lonely

They forgot the miracle of happiness that was promised

When they were still children.

Don't forget, don't forget to feel and to see

Don't stop dreaming, hoping

Don't forget, don't forget to pity and to cry

Don't forget to love and to live.

I too was a child a long time ago

When I was better

And I forget the light blue in front of the cloud

But you, don't give up.

Don't forget, don't forget to feel and to see

Don't stop dreaming, hoping

Don't forget, don't forget to pity and to cry

Don't forget to love and to live.

When you grow up you'll still be a child in your own way

And you'll live among people

You will see such wonders here in your home

And across the whole world.

Don't forget, don't forget to feel and to see

Don't stop dreaming, hoping

Don't forget, don't forget to pity and to cry

Don't forget to love and to live.

Don't forget, don't forget to feel and to see

Don't stop dreaming, hoping

Don't forget, don't forget to pity and to cry

Don't forget to love and to live.