Rhymes and Reasons

So, finally I got to write more about this (continuing the post titled Twilight Time), and will give a couple of poem translations at the end of this post. Let me start with some background on my long relationship with rhymes.

As far back as I can remember myself, I always loved to hear, seek and produce rhymes. My father sang lullabies to us in Russian. My brother Meir (a year younger than me) and I listened to songs on the radio for hours every day for many many years, mainly in Hebrew, but also plenty in English, French, Italian, Spanish – whatever was playing. 

I also started rhyming early – wrote some banal, patriotic (with hindsight) poems for the middle school newspaper, enjoying mainly the rhyming. Then, I started generating a long string of variations on existing songs, changing the words (but keeping the original language) to suit various occasions of family and friends (birthdays, weddings, etc.), first primarily in Hebrew, and more recently in English as well. Many in my  academic community are familiar with the masterpieces (?) I wrote for Shafi (“Crypto Queen”) and for Silvio (“Crypto Boy”), based respectively on Queen’s songs “Killer Queen” and “Lover Boy” when they got the Turing award, as well as with Oded’s (“In the Goldreich World”) which I wrote for  his 60^th birthday, based on ABBA’s “Money, Money, Money”. These words exist online, as well as some cool performances, and I can dig these up at some point (unless good souls like Yael Kalai and Ran Canetti will do so earlier).

While such variations I did plenty, I translated very little over the decades. Yuval, our youngest, whose Hebrew and English developed in parallel,  was into comparing and translating between them as soon as he spoke well. When he was a pre-teen we had fun translating together some songs both from Hebrew to English and vice versa  (a notable funny example is Tom Lehrer’s Be Prepared, https://youtu.be/vEb9cL3-kf0  which necessitated explanations of several words and issues he did not encounter yet…). Later, the few times I did translate were mainly trying to share with  a specific (non Hebrew speaking) friend my enthusiasm about a specific poem or song in Hebrew he or she could not understand. I enjoyed this very much each time, but I guess I never thought of doing this without such a direct cause, or perhaps was just busier with other things.

As I mentioned in that previous post, this illness suddenly provided me with huge amounts of time during which I can hardly do any of the activities that typically filled my time previously, primarily mental ones! It was thus a revelation for me to discover that in the many hours of “twilight time”, when I lie tired in bed (during day or night), can’t enjoy much listening to music or a book and certainly can’t think about math, I can translate! This revelation, roughly coinciding with the start of my EPOCH chemo treatment 6 weeks ago, turned to something like an obsession (already did a couple of dozen), which enabled me to spend large chunks of this painful and frustrating period in a joyful activity, of the type I like so much – intellectual, challenging and creative. 

Before this post gets too long, let me get to some poem translations, and defer to the next post  a discussion on the subject’s many important issues. These include details of this translation process, the way I choose what to translate, what are my priorities in the many conflicts that translation  (especially of poetry) bring up, “quality control” (?), etc. But also many other aspects around this activity, like correspondence with many friends on these translations, theoretical aspects which I am only beginning to learn about and think about, and more, which help me fill free times when I am more cognitively awake and concentrated. I guess it is becoming clear why I call the discovery of this activity a “revelation’’. 

One last word: I waited till now before posting other translations so far for an obvious reason – copyrights. I will elaborate later, but With Rachel’s poem that I already posted this was not a problem (as she died so long ago), but with all other poets, it was. I now started getting permissions, which in itself is very moving to me! 

Here are two poems of another poetess called Rachel – this time  Rachel Shapira (רחל שפירא) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Shapira She is one of my most beloved poets! It was too much work for me to create the side-by-side Hebrew vs. English images as I did with the first poem I posted, so I’ll make my life easier from now on. For each poem, I will give my twilight translation to English below, and simply provide a link to the original Hebrew poem lyrics, as well as (per some requests I got) a link to my favorite performance of it as a song.

• The first poem is They who were born by the sea (זה שנולד ליד הים). I was born by the sea in Haifa, spent most of my childhood on the beach and in the water, had a view of it all day every day from my bedroom…Anyway, the original Hebrew poem is here https://shironet.mako.co.il/artist?type=lyrics&lang=1&prfid=383&wrkid=8235 and my favorite performance is the song is here https://youtu.be/y2OJHrhS6qs

They who were born by the sea – Rachel Shapira

She who was born by the sea
He who was born by the sea

Is often jealous of the wind
Has wavy core, a bluish tinge
And frothy temper

One moment floats, one moment dives

Has certain elements of strife 

A salty center

Then high and low tides alternate 

And mighty storms, slowly abate

In my home harbor 

She who was born by the sea

He who was born by the sea

A seagull’s character posses

From having never ending stress 

To read the water

Day dreaming now as you can tell 

Of having fish or a seashell 

As son or daughter 

Then high and low tides alternate 

And mighty storms, slowly abate

In my home harbor 

She who was born by the sea

He who was born by the sea

Their rooms have captive in their midst

Some secret islands, ocean mist,

Sky-blue oasis

Always attempting to restore

These nets of light, that curvy shore

Its liquid basis

Then high and low tides alternate 

And mighty storms, slowly abate

In my home harbor 

• The second poem is The rain men (אנשי הגשם). The original Hebrew poem is here https://shironet.mako.co.il/artist?type=lyrics&lang=1&prfid=904&wrkid=434 and my favorite performance is the song is here https://youtu.be/Jton2Sg5ZY8

The rain men - Rachel Shapira

The rain men learned just how to keep out of your sight

In their coats they shrink and then remain inert

Large drops are weeping from the blues of their nights

Large drops revealing just, how much they hurt

You’re distant and don’t really see there at all

Your smiles they stealthily collect, remain unheard 

There’s no eye-contact, recognition, even small

You never graced them with, a kindly word

If those who love you will desert,
betrayal labels you “has been”
If no one greets you on the street when you walk by
A throne the rain men will erect
And crown you as their only queen
And they will share with you, your sadness  grief and sigh

You're celebrating, and you have for them no need
With empathy they watch you doing as you please 

The rain men will give their life if called indeed
To spare you any shortage, or disease

As loyal as a shadow, patient as the time
The rain man wait for you and will wait more and more
And every year, a week, a day, an hourly chime 

Will get you closer, to their door

When those who loved you disembark
And all your dogs at you will bark

To their bed they'll carry you with velvet gloves
The rain men will your mood repair
By sharing with you your despair

And they will warm you with the crumbs of their love