I'm packing cold corpses in a crate and I'm another lump of meat waiting to be frozen
The lack of feeling makes it difficult for me to separate a finger from a sausage
I'm seeing signs of repeat pattern but someone was wrong in the degree of doneness
The breath of the mouth mixes with the smoke and gets thicker every second
A long paid vacation which you didn't pack anything for
I'm feeling the heaviness of the head and the whole body tilting after it
I'm walking down a long hall and I always have to find the floor above it
A long paid vacation which you didn't pack anything for
Mirror, mirror who's the prettiest girl of them all?
Certainly not Shiran or Coral or Sapir
Mirror, mirror, mirror on the wall
Artik and Makel, there's no one who doesn't know them
Hello man
Hakol beseger*
This second wave isn't for me I almost went bankrupt
Do you know how much money I already lost this year?
Yom Kippur passed and I heard no apology from the country
Government. La la la la.
Why does this look like a really bad prank
The world is moving forward I'm with my head in the ground
From the depths, without grants
I'm alone on the roof Saturdays and holidays
Mirror, mirror who's the prettiest girl of them all?
Certainly not Shiran or Coral or Sapir
Mirror, mirror, mirror on the wall
All of the Wolt couriers are studs
Is there joy and happiness like me? Masked. ha ha
Is there joy and happiness like me? It's a joke.
I'm afraid to cough
I'm afraid to catch a cold
I'm afraid to get married
I'm afraid to be in a crowd
I'm afraid to pray
To assimilate and to curse
Everything is forbidden I said enough, I don't care about Dubai
Here is the little citizen
Long forgotten
And doesn't know where
Maybe I'll fly to Greece
This is the time to wake up
Before we die
We can't break
Mirror, mirror who's the prettiest girl of them all?
Certainly not Shiran or Coral or Sapir
Mirror, mirror, mirror on the wall
All of the Wolt couriers are studs
Artik and Makel, there's no one who doesn't know them
*Everything's in lockdown-sounds like 'hakol beseder': everything's alright
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
Round and around we go. Mitzpe Rimon is the perfect place to disconnect from everything going on, to really clear your mind and enjoy being in the moment. I was hoping to spend a few days there later this month but it will have to wait until the other side of the upcoming lockdown, whenever that will be. I had already prepared myself for restrictions during the High Holidays, but a complete lockdown could have been avoided if this crisis was handled better, not to mention the fact that we have no idea how we'll get out of this mess. All that's left is to try to accept the situation and be grateful for clear skies.
Where did I come from?
Where do I go?
I'm so far away from home
What am I going for?
How can I know
What I'm fighting for?
I'm feeling like an alien baby
Riding around the world
I'm feeling like a stranger lately
Round and around we go
So where can I go?
A million miles from home
What am I going for
How can I know
What I'm fighting for?
