happy tunesday! כבר אחרי חצות

 

Last week's Tunesday I shared a recording of one of my songs, "Midnight Has Come and Gone." That post was here. At the time I offered bonus points to whoever identified the Israeli pop song that inspired it. For the record, my sister is the only person who got the bonus points. Which isn't really much of a surprise, given our shared childhood.

At any rate, my inspiration was "כבר אחרי חצות" ("Already After Midnight") by אילנית (Ilanit). It was Ilanit's first solo single, released in 1968. I first came across it at summer camp -- where I heard a lot of Israeli pop songs from the late '60s to early '70s.

Over the years I've wanted to translate it to English -- but not enough to actually do so. My Hebrew is good enough that I could get the gist of it, and come up with an almost-complete translation. But there are a few nuances that I couldn't get without cheating. Notably, the three verses each ends with a form of the word אהבה (love), and I never knew the specific meanings of the three different words.

So I never really created a full translation. Instead, I wrote my own song, borrowing some stylistic elements. For example, my song's title, "Midnight Has Come and Gone" is kind of a loose translation of the title of Ilanit's song (as noted, "Already After Midnight"). In both songs, each verse begins with the song's title. And both songs talk about sparing a moment. In fact, as I was writing my lyrics, I had Ilanit's melody in my head. So you can sing my lyrics to her melody. And, I suppose, vice versa. While we're at it, my chorus begins with the line "Tomorrow is another day," which is very close to the first line of Ilanit's chorus ("Tomorrow will be a new day").

But there are many differences. The lyrical similarities noted above are, I think, the extent of it. And Ilanit's song is optimistic, whereas mine is desperate. I also completely redid the melody and chord progression for mine.

As an aside, I note one peculiar thing about the structure of Ilanit's song. There are only three different verses, with the first one sung three times. The song goes: Verse 1, Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Verse 3.

Anyway, I finally decided that I needed a full translation of Ilanit's song. I am sharing that below, but first I'd like to explain my methodology. I typed each line into Google translate, and then put the translations -- line by line -- into Word. Finally, I tweaked it a little for poetic purposes. Following is my finished translation (without repeating the chorus or the first verse).

Already after midnight.
They haven’t yet turned off the off the moon.
Because before they turn off the lights,
The lights of the stars.
Give another moment to the lovers.

Tomorrow will be a new day.
And what is possible
From a new day that we have yet to see?
So give us another moment
Just another moment
Even though it’s already after midnight

Already after midnight.
They haven’t yet lit up the morning.
Because before they clean
The yesterday from the streets
Give another moment of love

Already after midnight.
They haven’t yet lit up the sun.
Because before they distribute
The newspapers and the milk
Give us another moment
To be loved.