Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Numbers (Mispurim) from “Lazooz”

Numbers (Mispurim) from “Lazooz”

One is the number of countries
Between the Jordan River and the sea

Two is the number of countries
That will one day be here.

Three year and four months
Is the time I gave to the TZAHAL (I.D.F.)

I didn’t sign on
I was at the Nachal.


Five shekels is what it costs to ride the bus
Well truthfully/actually, four ninety.
But until the CD [lit., disk] comes out
You have another few months.

I was a child of six
When Saadat came to Israel [lit., the land]
A child of seven when they signed the treaties/agreements.

Eight is the number of Uri Malmillian
Who is without a doubt the hero of my childhood.

Nine times I was too close to a terrorist attack
At least – for now [or: so far].

Ten is the answer that is most Israeli
To the question “What’s up?”

I too, like all the Jews, am busy/obsessed with numbers.
Twenty-four, seven, twelve months.
I too, like all the Jews, am busy/obsessed with numbers.
Twenty-four, seven, twelve months.
I too, like all the Jews, am busy/obsessed with numbers.
Twenty-four, seven twelve months.
I too, like all the Jews, am busy/obsessed with numbers.
Twenty-four, seven twelve months.

My wife is a woman of twenty-seven
I am a man of thirty.

It is coming very close to the time
That we want to have [lit. bring (into the world)] children.

But we also want them to have it all:
Food, clothes, soccer/ball games, games/toys.

To the executive director of HaPoalim Bank
This does not matter
Because he brings home every day
Twenty-nine thousand, eight hundred, sixteen shekel.

“Every day?” God damn it!

Divide this by two or fifteen
And this is still a monthly salary that is [pretty] good for today.

They agree with me, do the thousands of fired workers from the textile factories
In the south.

The growth in Israel in 2001
Was negative 0.6%

People who until yesterday had jobs
See a tomato in the garbage and think
“What a waste.”

The state of the economy of Israel is the worst it has been
In the last forty-eight years.

“Forty-eight?
To me that number is familiar!
Where is it from?”

Four cellular companies compete
For the ears
Of seventy-five percent of Israelis.

The executive director of Cellcom
Goes to the bank once a month,
Deposits a salary of
Six-hundred, seventy-four thousand shekel.

There are a quarter of a million of unemployed
Thirty-six thousand of them were added this year.

It looks like Eli Luzon was right when he sings…
[plays a bit of Luzon’s number-one hit in Israel]

I too, like all the Jews, am busy/obsessed with numbers.
Twenty-four, seven twelve months.
I too, like all the Jews, am busy/obsessed with numbers.
Twenty-four, seven twelve months.
I too, like all the Jews, am busy/obsessed with numbers.
Twenty-four, seven twelve months.
I too, like all the Jews, am busy/obsessed with numbers.
Twenty-four, seven twelve months.

Forgers offer for ten shekel
The CD [lit., disk] that we worked on for four years.

The dollar went up in tens of agurot
In three weeks
Which raised the rent [lit., cost] of the apartment for
Hundreds of thousands of people.

In your pocked
There isn’t enough
To pay for school books and diapers

What did the government do in response?
Cut 12 percent off from the child support [payment].

When a woman goes to work
She makes every hour
Seven shekel and 10 agurot
On average less
From what a man doing the same job would make.

And I am not a prophet
But between five hundred and six hundred people
Will die this year in the streets.

Dear Minister of Transportation:
How do these numbers make you feel?

And still, the number that is biggest until today
That holds the hope but represents the disaster
It makes pause
Every person that is sane…

Six million

I too, like all the Jews, am busy/obsessed with numbers.
Twenty-four/seven, twelve months.

[this repeats. On each repetition, “am busy/obsessed with numbers, Twenty-four/seven, twelve months” slowly fades until all that is sung is]

I, too, like all the Jews…

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