The Akedah: The Role of the IDF in Israeli Identity (Hebrew-English)

Ahuva Ozeri

Where's My Soldier

Where's my soldier?

Where's my soldier?

When will I run towards him?

When will I feel his hand?

Where's my soldier?

He did not send letters

My regards were not received at all

Please help, help me, my friend

He did not send letters

My regards were not received at all

Please help, help me, my friend

Where's my soldier?

Where's my soldier?

Why is everyone silent?

Why not talk?

Are we not, are we not alive?

Why is everyone silent?

Why not talk?

Are we not, are we not alive?

Where's my soldier?

Where's my soldier?

I will pray for you

Light a candle for your soul

But where is his grave?

I will pray for you

Light a candle for your soul

But where is his grave?

Where's my soldier?

Where's my soldier?

Your buried image

When will I hear your voice?

I keep thinking you're here

Your buried image

When will I hear your voice?

I keep thinking you're here

Where's my soldier?

Where's my soldier?

When will I run towards him?

When will I feel his hand?

Where's my soldier?

I will pray to G-d

May he bring me back to you again

It seems to me that G-d

Doesn't want you to come back

It seems to me that G-d

Doesn't want you to come back

Translation: https://lyricstranslate.com

Yoni Ro'eh

It is a starry night, the moon comes up
You sit there staring into darkness
The hour passes, a day, a year
And you still wait for him
The hour passes, a day, a year
You are still lost, captive of faith

You ask for the fruit of your garden
Who will tell you? Who will answer you?
Your pain in bitter, days pass
You were left alone, wanting to believe
That here comes the time
When he promised to come back
That here comes the time
When he promised to come back

Grief is wrapping you in silence
The with stays in your heart
The hour passes, a day, a year
And you still wait for him
The hour passes, a day, a year
You still remember, you don’t believe

You ask for the fruit…..

You ask for the fruit of your garden
Who will tell you? Who will answer you?
Your pain in bitter, days pass
You were left alone, wanting to believe
That here comes the time
When he promised to come back
That here comes the time
When he promised but didn’t come back

Translation: Chana Shuvaly

http://hebrewsongs.com/?song=priganech

Father -- Evyatar Banai

Father, I want to stand before You

To believe that You are a good Father

Father, I need to know that You love me

Just like that, good Father.

Father, I want to be sure with all my heart

that this journey will have a good ending

That everything I am going through along the way

will turn weakness into great strength.

Father, I want to go back to myself

to find You there with me

In my origins, I am as good as can be, Father

And there I believe in myself.

O my dove, that are in the clefts of the rock

Let me hear thy voice

Sing to me a brand, brand new song

that would illuminate my heart and my strings.

Father, I want to stand before You

To believe that You are a good Father

Father, I need to know that You love me

Just like that, good Father.

O my dove, that are in the clefts of the rock

Let me hear thy voice

Sing to me a brand, brand new song

that would illuminate my heart and my strings.

https://lyricstranslate.com

Mother, Mother -- Ahuva Ozeri

Mom, mom, keep the door open

My whole body is shaking with cold

Mom, mom, keep the door open

On my shoulders, a heavy burden

A night has passed

The snow is coming

It whips my bones

I look upwards

Pick me up

We won't know what tomorrow brings

A friend sets out on a mission

The heart cries in the dark

Mom, mom, keep the door open

My whole body is shaking with cold

Mom, mom, keep the door open

On my shoulders, a heavy burden

The heartaches

Far from you

Sends you thousands of greetings

The night is cold

Inside my room

Dark and gentle in my dream

My little girl

Sent a letter with love

Mom, mom, keep the door open

My whole body is shaking with cold

Mom, mom, keep the door open

On my shoulders, a heavy burden

A night has passed

The snow is coming

It whips my bones

I look upwards

Pick me up

We won't know what tomorrow brings

A friend sets out on a mission

The heart cries in the dark

https://lyricstranslate.com/en/eimi-eimi-mom-mom.html

Ory Bernstein: ABRAHAM BECOMES HUMAN

You didn’t promise me anything.
You didn’t tempt me.
Not when I went out ahead of the army
and not when it passed by.

I sent one son to die,
and the other I tried to sacrifice.
I maintained an innocence
no longer useful.

When all the prophecies come to pass –
and they always do, for evil –
my eyes will lift toward you
at the camp, like the eyes of a cow.

Behold me in my affliction, look
as my days are numbered.
I was, after all, just an instance
around which things happened.

© Translation: 2017, Lisa Katz
First published on Poetry International, 2017

Yehuda Amichai

"God has Pity on Kindergarten Children" (by Yehuda Amichai)

God has Pity on Kindergarten Children

God has pity on kindergarten children.
He has less pity on school children
And on grownups he has no pity at all,
he leaves them alone,
and sometimes they must crawl on all fours
in the burning sand
to reach the first–aid station
covered with blood.

But perhaps he will watch over true lovers
and have mercy on them and shelter them
like a tree over the old man
sleeping on a public bench.

Perhaps we too will give them
the last rare coins of charity
that Mother handed down to us
so that their happiness may protect us
now and on other days.

Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell's translation

Inheritance Haim Gouri

Last came the ram.And Abraham did not know that it wasresponding to the question of the boy,his foremost strength as his life waned away.

The old man raised his head.
When he saw he was not dreaming a dream,
and an angel was standing by -
the knife fell from his hand.

The boy, released from his bonds,saw his father’s back.

Isaac, as recounted, was not offered up in sacrifice.

He lived a long time,experienced the good, until the light of his eyes grew dim.

Nonetheless, that hour he gave to his progeny, an inheritance.They are bornand a knife is in their heart.

© Translation: 1981, T. Carmi

Raya Hernik

I will not sacrifice

My first born to the altar.

Not I.

At nights God and I

Take stock –

Who deserves what.

I know and acknowledge

Where thanks are due.

But not my son

And not

To the altar.

Couldn't find who is the translator