“What happened to the boy who spoke to stars?
Who shared secrets with flowers and seagulls, who secretly counted each freckle and slept in the sand,
What happened to him that one day he just got up and disappeared?
I want to go back to my most beautiful days…”
“Binyamina Days” came out in 1975. Hava Alberstein sang Ehud Manor’s words to Mati Caspi’s music, the song became a huge Israeli hit, hitting on all the nostalgia for a younger, pre ’73 War days, and I, 6 years old, who has never been to Binyamina, a dusty village turned fancy town, up north from where I grew up, have been singing it since, often late night, walking home from this or that moment, yearning, longing, for simple, for barefoot, for childhood, for inner child talking to flowers, for home.
מה קרה לילד שדיבר אל כוכבים
שהמתיק סודות עם סביונים ושחפים
שספר כל נמש חרש ובחול נרדם –
מה קרה לו יום אחד שקם ונעלם?
– Amichai
Inspired to share? Comments or reactions? Check out more on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
