https://youtube/watch?v=jzPShrawxLc April 17, 2014: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a literary giant from latin America and a nobel-laureate, passes away. He wrote about reality and the imagined, of sorrow and beauty, of love and dreams. At an age, when it is considered un-artistic to take political stands, he did so with boldness and vehemence - always siding with the oppressed, always with a progressive vision, always standing with those who want to create an alternative, and always against the tyrants. No wonder, he was banned from entering the US for good three decades. As he said: “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.” April 18, 1930: It was also a good-Friday. Led by an unassuming school-teacher, Masterda Surya Sen, a few young bravehearts, and some 60 boys shook the mighty British Empire to its foundation. For the first time in the 20th century, the British were forced out a town – CHITTAGONG, an eastern hub of the British India, and that too at the hands of a rag-tag army of kids. The plan was as visionary as it was audacious. Apri 19, 1943: The tide of world war II hadn’t turned yet. But in the middle of Nazi offensive, came one of the biggest Jewish resistance – the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Ghetto fought back – brave and resilient. The uprising failed, but it had become a stirring symbol of resistance to Nazi tyranny. The song: One of the partisans composed the famous Yiddish song – “zog nit keyn mol” (Never say that You have reached the very end). Here’s the song sung by Paul Robeson in the legendary Moscow concert in 1949. His deep baritone voice and his soulful rendering always leave a lump in your throat. But one can only imagine what it must be when this African-american (still without even voting rights in his country) sang in Yiddish in a country that has just emerged from routing the Nazis – paying for it dearly with their own blood and toil, sacrifice and enormous losses. In my visits to Israel, I was surprised to find that nobody knows about or remembers zog nit keyn mol. Blame it on the small sample size or demise of Yiddish – but a curious fact nonetheless. Here’s the English translation (for us Yiddish challenged): Never say that you have reached the very end When laden skies a bitter future may portend For sure the hour for which we yearn will not arrive And our marching steps will thunder: we survive. Not lead but blood inscribes this bitter song we sing It’s not the caroling of birds upon their wing But it’s the people midst the crushing fires of hell That sang this song and fought courageously till it fell.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 14:55:59 +0000
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