Amichai’s Top 50/45. “Ayala” אילה
Yona Vollach was one of the most provocative and brilliant Israeli poets of the 20th century. A few years ago the band Alma composed one of her most stunning poems – Ayala, the dow.
Summer 2016, P. & I are heading to the beach on his motorcycle, we are newly in love, he is the driver and I’m holding on to his back for the four hour drive, headphones on, music blaring and this song, on repeat, again and again, I’m singing at the top of my lungs and also crying – for joy, and also because it is such a distinct Israeli-Jewish-Hebrew song that I don’t think I can share it with him. And indeed, it turns out, I can’t and this is one of the reasons we dwindle. O doe – I long to drink water with you in the secret hidden creek within the cliffs inside my love. Again.
“In a hidden creek
within the cliffs
a doe drinks water.
What does this doe have to do with me?
Are these the cliffs of my heart,
The creek of my life,
The one which is hidden?
O doe
What do you have to do with me?
What does this doe have to do with me?
It must be my love.”
Yona Vollach (Eng. Amichai Lau-Lavie)
בנקיק נסתר בצוקים
אילה שותה מים
מה לי ולה אלא צוקי ליבי
אלא מעיין חיי אלא נסתר
אילה מה לי ולה
מה לי ולה
מה לי ולה
אילה מה לי ולה
אלא אהבתי
Photo: Yona Vollach
– Amichai
Amichai’s Top 50: Soundtrack of my life. 4/20-6-8 2019/Passover-Shavuot 5779
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