Klez note

Well, a tune we’re playing in klezmer band, but it’s an Israeli dance tune, not a klezmer tune, Od Lo Ahavti Dai, music and lyrics by Naomi Shemer. I was working on it in Finale this evening and looked it up on google. I found several stanzas that aren’t on the music I was working from, and a better translation that I had had (but not enough of one to understand the words I don’t know in the first stanza, to say nothing of the other stanzas). Here’s a link to the words. If you want the music you can try clicking on the audio link there, or just google the name. I like that line in the refrain, “I haven’t loved the wind and sun on my face enough.” Holy smokes! There are two translations into English, one closer to the meaning, one that rhymes and scans so you can sing it, and translations to Italian and Spanish. Regardless of the translation, if you don’t know Hebrew, you won’t know that the last phrase of the refrain is from a 1900-year-old religious text.