Continuing a look at some beautiful Hebrew songs, I am including a beautiful song called Livkot Lekha, or To Cry for You. As I said many of the beautiful poetry songs of modern Israel come from the fact that Israel is a nation always at war with its neighbors and the poets write about their loss and their hopes. This particular song, however, while steeped in this style of songwriting, was written by Aviv Geffen in memory of his Nir Shpiener who was killed in a car accident in 1992 at the age of 18. Later the song was taken to be a sort of anthem for soldiers who were taken before their time. It is interesting to note that more people die from automobile accidents in Israel than anything else. The country has a fairly low rate of death by automobile accident when compared to countries like the US, but Israel has a very low death rate from accident to begin with.
Here are the English words:
I am going to cry for you, be strong up there
My longings are like doors opened at night.
Forever, my brother, I will always remember you
And at the end we will meet, you know,
I have other friends but they all fade away
Against your unbelievable light.
When we are sad we go to the sea,
that’s why the sea is salty
And it is very sad you can return equipment
But you can not return the longings.
Forever, my brother….
And like the waves we are getting smashed
Against the pier, against life.
So I am going to cry for you, be strong up there.
Forever, my brother, I will always remember you
So I’m going to cry for you,
be strong up there
I could not find a youtube with this song, so I am creating one myself with audio only.
Enjoy!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eISKLFKa7hM]