YIH'YE TOV (NEW TRANSLATION)

DAVID BROZA

STU LEWIS (TRANSLATOR)

Hebrew Lyrics

This is intended to be a singable translation of David
Broza's "Yih'ye Tov."

I am looking out my window and my heart is filled with pain,
For lo, the Spring is gone now, it may never come again,
In a land that's ruled by jesters, all the prophets seem like clowns,
And I don't know where I'm going, but I guess I'll hang around.

CHORUS:

So you tell me, tell me once again,
It will all turn out all right,
If you hold me, oh please hold me,
I can make it through the night.

See our young ones test their wings as they go flying off to war,
See them come back two years later, and they still don't know what
for.
People living on the edge here need a reason just to breathe,
Amid the fighting and the bloodshed, do we dare to talk of peace?

(chorus)

I look up and watch the clouds as they are learning how to fly,
But they cannot hide the warplanes flying swiftly throught the sky.
Generals divide the landscape with their greedy little hands;
It's as if they owned the sunrise--will this fighting ever end?

(chorus)

Someday we'll learn to live together, into plowshares bend our
spears,
And our children won't know shelters, won't know borders, won't know
fears.
O'er the graves of our brave soldiers, the grass once more will
thrive.
Despite a hundred years of fighting, our hope is still alive.

(chorus)

Translation

I hope that I have been true to the spirit of the song. As I see it, the affirmation "It will be good" is a very tentative one, and I tried to capture that. My translation makes explicit what I believe to be the connection between the two halves of the chorus. The word "lo" in verse 1 may not seem idiomatic, but I believe the original is making a reference to "Song of Songs," and I was trying to preserve that. PS. I have heard many times a different version that is about Saadats Visit to Israel... Samuel Cohen Bavid Broza added verses as history unfolded. There is a verse about Sadat's trip to J-lem. The main problem translating this song is the wonderful double-meanings don't survive. isnt there also verse- "just let's get out of territories" but if this was translated than it's been erased.- YohananW. hey Stu, you came really close on most off it. some of your ideas are just bueatifull. i translated this song a while ago. i don't know if you're a native hebrew speaker, but you really did a nice job. mm

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Added September 17th, 2000