This is a translation to a piece I'm auditioning with in New York next week. I just translated it today with my teacher and while I always knew the overall themes of the song, I had no idea how beautifully horrible its implications were. The poet wrote this for his daughter who struggled through life with depression and mental health issues and the title, Shimri Nafshech, means "guard your soul". His daughter would later kill herself.
Guard your soul, guard your strength, guard your soul
Guard your life, your mind, guard your life
From a falling wall, from a burning roof, from a covering shadow
From a light stone, from a knife, from nails
Guard your soul, from the one who starts fire, from the one who cuts
From the one who is close to you like earth and like sky
From the one who is inanimate, the one who waits, the one who pulls
And the one who kills, like the water in the well, like the fire of an element
Guard your soul and your mind, the hair on your head
Guard your skin, guard your soul, guard your life
This is a summer's evening, it would seem
It would seem only to be a good summer's evening
Familiar and old
That should bring acts of goodness and mercy
Not fear and not whispers of suspicion and words of guilt
One that comes with the smell of food cooking
And with the lantern that gives light
Until we should rest and sleep
Only a summer's evening, hot and good, it would seem
Only a summer's evening that comes with no fear
Here the wind sends hands and without a whisper
Suddenly a window slowly opens in the darkness
Say why you laugh in fear
Say why you are frozen with happiness
Say why the world is still so foreign
And fire and water look at it from every side
Say why in this world your life is flailing
Like a frightened bird in a palm
Say why you search and shake so much
Like a bird in a room looking for a window
Guard your tired soul, guard your soul
Guard your life, your mind, guard your life
The hair on your head, your skin, guard your beauty
Guard your good heart
It is all found in your hand
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