{"id":51295,"date":"2023-04-24T01:10:51","date_gmt":"2023-04-23T23:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=51295"},"modified":"2026-04-26T03:26:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T01:26:47","slug":"yerushalayim-shel-zahav-one-of-the-most-beautiful-songs-about-a-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/04\/24\/yerushalayim-shel-zahav-one-of-the-most-beautiful-songs-about-a-city\/","title":{"rendered":"'Yerushalayim Shel Zahav': One of the most beautiful songs about a city"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tonight a song was going through my head whose sweet melody often comes to my mind, but which I had never seen translated.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/08\/07\/ana-alcaide-luna-sefardita-a-beautiful-song-about-a-sephardic-girl-from-toledo\/\">Ana Alcaide, 'Luna sefardita': a beautiful song about a Sephardic girl from Toledo<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2021\/05\/10\/zog-nit-kein-mol-a-beautiful-song-full-of-hope-arising-from-the-horror-of-the-holocaust\/\">'Zog nit kein mol': a beautiful song full of hope arising from the horror of the Holocaust<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>\"Yerushalayim Shel Zahav\" (Jerusalem of Gold) <strong>was written in 1967 by Israeli singer-songwriter Naomi Shemer<\/strong> (1933-2004). The melody is based on a Basque song, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lq1tcUixyRw\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\"Pello Joxepe\"<\/a>. The lyrics of the Hebrew song <strong>evoke the long journey of the people of Israel back to the land of their ancestors<\/strong>, a journey that was fraught with hardship, so the joy of seeing the city of Israel again Jerusalem is conveyed in a truly heartfelt way, making it one of the most beautiful songs ever written about a city. <strong>You can listen to Naomi Shemer singing it here:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Naomi Shemer - Shuli Nathan - &quot;Yeroushalayim shel zahav &quot; - \u05d9\u05e8\u05d5\u05e9\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd \u05e9\u05dc \u05d6\u05d4\u05d1\" width=\"665\" height=\"499\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mjmMllp8hJg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>And here is a version sung by Ofra Haza<\/strong> and with the text of the song translated into Spanish:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jerusalem of Gold (\u05d9\u05e8\u05d5\u05e9\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd \u05e9\u05dc \u05d6\u05d4\u05d1, Yerushalayim Shel Zahav) - Ofra Haza - with English translation\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BnPInqMUSJ8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In 1993, this beautiful song <strong>appeared in the final sequence of the film \"Schindler's List\"<\/strong>, which ends with the image of the descendants of the Jews saved by Oskar Schindler:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Yerushalaim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold)\" width=\"665\" height=\"499\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n8bSfSLKweU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>This is the translation of the lyrics into English:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The mountain air is clear as wine<br \/>\nAnd the smell of the pines<br \/>\nCarried by the evening wind<br \/>\nWith the sound of bells.<\/p>\n<p>And when the tree rests on the stone,<br \/>\nPrey to his dream,<br \/>\nThe city stands alone<br \/>\nAnd in his heart a wall.<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem of gold,<br \/>\nOf copper and light,<br \/>\nOf all his songs<br \/>\nI am violin.<\/p>\n<p>We have returned to the watering holes<br \/>\nto the market and the square,<br \/>\nThe shofar [ram's horn] is blown again<br \/>\non the Temple Mount, in the ancient city.<\/p>\n<p>And in the caves in the rock<br \/>\nThousands of suns shine,<br \/>\nWe will go down again to the Dead Sea<br \/>\nOn the way to Jericho.<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem of gold,<br \/>\nOf copper and light,<br \/>\nOf all his songs<br \/>\nI am violin.<\/p>\n<p>But when I come today to sing to you<br \/>\nAnd to adorn you with crowns,<br \/>\nI am the youngest of your children<br \/>\nAnd the last of your poets.<\/p>\n<p>Because your name would burn the lips<br \/>\nLike the kiss of an angel,<br \/>\nIf I forgot you, Jerusalem,<br \/>\nFull of gold.<\/p>\n<p>Jerusalem of gold,<br \/>\nOf copper and light,<br \/>\nOf all his songs<br \/>\nI am violin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/pxhere.com\/es\/photo\/1173005\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pxhere.com<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tonight a song was going through my head whose sweet melody often comes to my mind, but which I had never seen translated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11348],"tags":[95,10905,19102,19103,19101],"class_list":["post-51295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-naomi-shemer","tag-ofra-haza","tag-yerushalayim-shel-zahav"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}