"The Ballad Of..."

a translation

Curls and waves, waves and curls-
Bad woman, lost.
Earrings and bracelets-
Modest, almost.
 Like a girl among adults,
Like a child that hurts. 

Fog and haze, fog and haze,
You’re too hard to blame
Words don’t have any weight-
Only weakness reigns
But you know no mercy
And no shame

Sad’s your stare, eyes torn,
So close to tears
Disappointments were not
Meant to appear.
How them evil fairies 
Deceived you, dear. 

Cruel people, bad world-
There’s a whole long list
Of what brings sorrow
Oh orchid in swamp, oh wild plant in mist
You’re lost in the present
And lack tomorrow.  

And the mouth twitches
In pain, in pain
And the past, like a fetus, 
Curls up in heart again,
In the hungry look
In the pale hands. 

Fingers fly, fingers fly
On piano keys, in dance. 
When this waltz is over,
New one won’t commence
Metronome Tic Tic Tac-
And time passes by. 

Wandering, wanderings
To where, to where-
To the faraway places,
Horizon over
In the land of dark lakes
And fields of clover

*****************

*the original is composed and sung by Izhar Ashdoot, lyrics written by Alona Kimhi.

(One can listen to it here: The Ballad Of...)

**I wanted to translate this seemingly very simple song for ages-I’m glad I’m finally trying. There’s a room(or rather, rooms) for improvement, I’d point out where exactly if I wouldn’t be scared to bore you to death -but it’s a start, and maybe-who knows?-will inspire somebody else to come up with their own versions. We’d compare notes, and all that.

***soyons brefs, I reminded myself-just to add, that whatever picture I choose-I don’t remember being in such a “maybe they’ll get hurt” over it before. Amazing. I don’t even know who “they” are, but “sorry” is already here, growing like weeds allover.

Thank you for….everything, really.

Love,

Chen/April