Rishon Rishon

Multicultural Mumbo Jumbo

For the last few months I’ve been enjoying a new CD that we got for the children. (There is so much quality children’s music out there that I don’t understand why anyone puts up with Barney!) It’s a CD of culturally distinctive music from around the world: World Playground: A Musical Adventure For Kids. One of the songs is Israeli, in Hebrew, about the recent exodus of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. It’s a great song, very appropriate for the collection, by Shlomo Gronich.

Shlomo Gronich is a popular Israeli musician. He is distinctive in creating musically high-quality, yet popular songs. I would guess that he is classically trained. Around ten or fifteen years ago he started a children’s choir composed of recent immigrants from Ethiopia. Much of the material that he wrote for them reflected their experiences. The most well known piece is the one that appears in this collection. Though it is written in Hebrew, it sounds Ethiopian (so I understand – it certainly doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before) and it’s become a kind of anthem for Ethiopian-Israelis. Called: Zikhronot me’afrika (Memories from Africa), its subject is the journey from Ethiopia to Israel.

Believe it or not, until about thirty years ago, so little was known about the Ethiopian Jewish community that their very existence was doubted. The rulers of Ethiopia both persecuted the Jews, and forbade them to leave. (Why this repeated pattern? I don’t know. It seems to go back to ancient Egypt.) Excerpt:

During the reign of Haile Selassie (1930-1974) the Jews of Ethiopia were treated with indifference but their inability to own land was coupled with the scorn of their neighbors who attributed to them every misfortune which befell them. In the struggles following the deposition of Haile Saleassie, an estimated 2,500 Jews were killed and 7,000 rendered homeless. From the end of 1977, small groups of Jews began to flee, joining refugee villages on the other side of the Sudanese border. Those caught trying to flee Ethiopia were arrested and tortured.

Claiming that Hebrew was being taught in preparation for emigration to Israel, the governor of Gondar confiscated Hebrew books, the practice of religion was forbidden, Jewish schools and synagogues closed and students caught talking to tourists were questioned and imprisoned. Travel was restricted and a Jew without a travel pass was assumed to be trying to escape and liable for imprisonment. But, the exodus continued. Within three years, there were hundreds of Jews in Sudan living in terrible conditions.

Pressure from world Jewry increased, the government of Israel pledged itself to save the Jews of Ethiopia and the Jewish Agency shifted its policy from quiet diplomacy to call for a worldwide campaign to publicize their plight.

In secret operations beginning in 1980, Israeli operatives were able to smuggle hundreds of Ethiopian Jews through Kenya to Israel. By the end of 1982 there were 2,500 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel and throughout 1983, 1,800 left Sudan over land. Recognizing the need to move more quickly, the Israelis began to use a nearby air strip to land Hercules transport planes which could each bring out 200 immigrants per flight. Utilizing a variety of routes, a total of 8,000 Jews had reached Israel by late 1984.

However, it was clear that the large numbers of Jews crossing into Sudan exacerbated the already horrific conditions in the camps. On November 21, Operation Moses began. Refugees were bused out of the refugee camps to a military airport near Khartoum where they were flown directly to Israel under a blanket of complete secrecy.

When news leaks ended the operation in January 1985, 8,000 Jews had been brought to Israel, leaving behind about 1,000 Jews in Sudan and thousands more in Ethiopia. Initiated by Vice President Bush, a CIA sponsored follow-up mission called Operation Joshua brought an additional 800 Jews from Sudan to Israel.

Operation Moses separated many from their loved ones and more than 1,600 "orphans of circumstances" separated from their families began new lives in Jewish Agency Youth Aliyah villages, learning Hebrew and becoming acculturated not knowing the fate of their parents, brothers, sisters and loved ones. Others took the first difficult steps in Agency absorption centers where they learned to live in a modern society.

I remember when the news broke of this exodus. It seemed incredible. Israelis of all kinds were awed and curious. It was then that I learned the difference between racism and prejudice. Israelis had all kinds of prejudices about Ethiopians, mostly based on fact. There were all kinds of stories about Ethiopian reactions to modern life, not all of them plausible. But the bottom line was that Israelis loved the Ethiopians. They have a much better reputation than the Russians, for instance. For example, everyone remarked on their good nature, and most Israelis think they’re very beautiful (including me).

The journey to Israel was long and hard, and many people died on the way, walking from Ethiopia to Sudan, from where they were flown to Israel. Gronich’s song tells of it. A few days ago, I idly picked up the workbook that accompanies the CD. At the back are transcriptions and translations of all the songs. Naturally, I turned to Zikhronot me’afrika. The first thing I noticed was that the translation was much shorter than the transcription. This was odd. In a text of any length, a translation of Hebrew into English is almost invariably longer than its transliteration (you may have noticed this on my site). On closer look, I realized that a lot of the text was left out, and what was translated was quite distorted. Why? See for yourself, the following is the original text with my transcription and translation, followed by the translation that appears in the book:

נכנסנו לציפור גדולה עם כנפיים מברזל 
אמא קצת בכתה ואבא רוב הזמן שתק 
אחר כך הוא אמר לי: בן, החוצה תסתכל 
עכשיו שמיים עננים, בסוף זה ארץ ישראל

בספר הספרים כתוב שהיא טובה 
חלב אפשר לשתות שם מתוך האדמה 
אברהם אבינו עשה בה את הברית 
ומקומנו שם, אלוהים על זה החליט

נכנסנו לציפור גדולה עם כנפיים מברזל 
אמא קצת בכתה ואבא רוב הזמן שתק
הוא ידע שכל מה שהיה הולך להשתנות 
שלום לך אפריקה, הכל ביום אחד נמחק 

היום הוא מחפש פה את יצחק אבינו 
מדבר קצת לפעמים על הארץ בה היינו 
מזכיר שלא היה שם טוב,את זה אני יודע 
אך בעיניו אני רואה: הוא קצת מתגעגע

נכנסנו לציפור גדולה עם כנפיים מברזל 
אמא קצת בכתה ואבא רוב הזמן שתק 
הדלת נסגרה על כל מה שהיה
זכרונות מאפריקה, של רעב ושל אבק 

Nikhnasnu l’sipur g’dola `im k’nafayim mibarzel
Ima q’sat bakhta v’aba rov hazman shataq
Ahar kakh hu amar li: ben, hahusa tistakel
`Akhshav shamayim `ananim, b’sof ze eres yisra’el

B’sefer hasfarim katuv shehi tova
Halav efshar lishtot sham mitokh ha’adama
Avraham avinu `asa ba’ et habrit
Umqomenu sham, elohim `al ze hihlit

Nikhnasnu l’sipur g’dola `im k’nafayim mibarzel
Ima q’sat bakhta v’aba rov hazman shataq
Hu yada` shekol ma shehaya holekh l’hishtanot
Shalom lakh afrika, hakol b’yom ehad nimhaq

Hayom hu m’hapes po et yishaq avinu
M’daber q’sat lif`amim `al ha’ares ba hayinu
Mazkir shelo’ haya sham tov, et ze ani yodea`
Akh b`eynav ani ro’e: hu q’sat mitga`agea`

Nikhnasnu l’sipur g’dola `im k’nafayim mibarzel
Ima q’sat bakhta v’aba rov hazman shataq
Hadelet nisg’ra `al ma shehaya
Zikhronot me’afrika, shel ra`av v’shel avaq

We went into a big bird with wings of iron
Mother cried a little, and father most of the time was quiet
Afterwards he said to me: son, look outside
Now it’s sky and clouds, in the end it’s the land of Israel

In the book of books it is written that it is good
Milk it is possible to drink there from out of the ground
Abraham our father made there the covenant
And our place is there, God has decided about it

We went into a big bird with wings of iron
Mother cried a little, and father most of the time was quiet
He knew that all that was is going to change
Goodbye to you, Africa, everything in one day is erased

Today he is looking here for Isaac our father
He talks a little sometimes about the land in which we were
Reminds us that it wasn’t good there, that I know
But in his eyes I see: he longs for it a little bit

We went into a big bird with wings of iron
Mother cried a little, and father most of the time was quiet
The door is closed on what was
Memories from Africa, of hunger and of dust

The following is their translation:

We stepped into a great big bird
With enormous iron wings
Mama softly cried, and papa never said a thing
Then once he turned to me and said
“Son, take a look around
Although the sky is full of clouds
You’ll soon see Israel on the ground.”

The Bible says the land is very good and sweet
If flows with milk and honey
From every mountain peak

Sometimes, he speaks to me
Of the land we used to live in
Reminding me of hardships there
Of dust and drought he tells
But how he’s longing in his eyes
I can see very well

Not only does this translation simply leave out a lot, it changes the sense of what it leaves. What is left out? All mentions of the historical connection between the land of Israel and the Jews, and the sense of homecoming with which the song is infused. And what remains? A longing for Africa, when the emphasis of the song is that despite some longing, what was left behind was hardship.

Finally, the CD fades out during the last paragraph, so that you can’t hear the last two lines at all! And it doesn’t bother to transcribe or translate it. Here it is:

אז לא ידעת אבא, למה יש לצפות 
ושעל אדמת הקודש נוסעים במכוניות 
הדברים טיפה אחרת, פה בארץ האבות 
ובני עמנו השתנו, מאז עשרת הדברות 

Az lo’ yada`ta aba, l’ma yesh lisapot
V’she`al admat haqodesh nos`im bimkhoniyot 
Hadvarim tipa aheret, po b’eres ha’avot
Ub’ney `amenu hishtanu, me’az `aseret hadibrot

Then you didn’t know father, what there was to expect
And that on the holy land they ride in cars
The things are a little different, here in the land of the forefathers
And the children of our people have changed, from the time of the Ten Commandments

UPDATE: Amritas links and says: “At least David Boxenhorn was able to properly translate the song on his own.” Actually, on re-reading this post I see that my translation was exceptionally stilted, mostly as a result of closely following the Hebrew word order. I would certainly have accepted a translation that favors poetry over accuracy little more than mine. Making an accurate translation is hard enough, making it sound good too is even harder! I think you can see, though, that the World Playground’s translation isn’t attempting quality in either sense.