I Hear Again, I’m a Soldier, By Nimrod Gaon, Michael Harris PhD, Major (Ret.) IDF

I Hear Again, I’m a Soldier, By Nimrod Gaon, Translation By Michael Harris

Nimrod Gaon 1951-1973, IDF officer in the Armored Corps was killed on the Second Day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Wrote secretly poetry. After Nimord was killed, Shlomo Artzi composed music and sang the song. It had a profound impact on me as I served in the IDF (joined in 1974, Ret. at rank of Major). I am humbled to introduce my translation from Hebrew to English – dedicated to all my IDF “Brothers in Arms”.

I Hear Again, I’m a Soldier

I once again hear during serene moments Janis Joplin singing an old blues about Bobby McGee.

A Quartet plays lucid music, causes me again to experience those trembling moments of pleasure

But I am a soldier – and don’t cry for me girl

(x2)

I continue to walk and move on the narrow path, Climb up the generations of hardship.

Above me birds glide free and the wind around as is calling to challenge,

But I am a soldier – and don’t cry for me girl

(x2)

I loved – moments of memories and passionate longings

On the table books by Chekhov, Like a stone without use, cause I am a man dressed as a soldier, constrained in a straitjacket,

So cry for me girl over the moments of loneliness, the hopes and the years, and cry for two loving and far-away hearts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFWuKakl1TA