Excerpt

There in the World That Is New

Words: Nava Semel                 Music: Ella Milch-Sherif

English translation: Sharon Neeman
 

Premiere: Li-Ron Choir Herzliya, conducted by Ronit Shapira

Torchlight Assembly, Holocaust Memorial Day 2008

Massuah, Institute for Holocaust Studies, Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak

Live broadcast on cable TV HOT.

Director: Yahli Bergman
 

She rides along the narrow rail.

What does she see?

Which way is freedom? Which is jail?

All the migrating birds take off into the blue -

A little girl; a grown-up girl -

Her home all too soon lost from view;

Her home all too soon lost from view.

 

She rides along the narrow rail.

What will she find?

Yesterday's dark; tomorrow's pale.

A harmonica plays to the open sky -

A little girl; a grown-up girl -

In the cattle car, no one must cry.

 

Shadows have covered her lifetime.

What language can help her see this time through?

Who will call her by name -

Who will hold out a hand -

There in the world that is new?

 

She rides along the narrow rail.

What will she keep?

Snow turns to desert; memories fail;

To the fragments of life in her soul she must cling -

A little girl; a grown-up girl -

And what will the journey's end bring?

 

She rides along the narrow rail;

Soon the last stop will come into view.

Who will be waiting -

Who'll hold you close,

There in the world that is new?

 

 

 

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