Ehud Manor, Rest In Peace

April 12, 2005 - 7:58 AM by Allison

One of Israel’s most important songwriters and translators died last night – Ehud Manor.

I just saw Manor, last week…I sat a few seats away from him at an Idan Raichel concert, the kick-off for the concert tour for his second album. Raichel acknowledged the presence of the Israel Prize winner at the opening of the concert. It was really moving to see Manor, one of the country’s elder statesmen of classic songwriting enjoy the music of ayoung, fresh, and somewhat edgy talent like Raichel.

I’ve interviewed Manor by telephone several times for newspaper articles, and we had pretty long conversations. I even translated one of his songs — the one he wrote right after Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated — so I could put it in an article for The Jerusalem Post, and I faxed it over to him for his approval.

But we’d never met face to face. When I saw him at the concert, I thought of going up to him and introducing myself and saying hello, but was feeling shy and worried that he wouldn’t remember who I was, anyway.

Now I’ve missed my chance.

He was, of course, a great songwriter — but less acknowledged was his talent as a translator. My favorite song of his is “Halevai” — here’s an English translation that doesn’t really do his lyrics justice.

You have to be completely bilingual to really appreciate Manor’s talents as a translator. It’s not easy to translate a timeless pop ballad, Shakespearean monologue or a Broadway hit like “Hair” or “Les Miz” into a different language and he was the master — his most recent triumph in that department was translating “Chicago” for a production that was a smash this past fall.

To get an idea of how loved he and his songs were by the general public, check out this link to the report of his death in the Hebrew Ynet. It’s still morning here and there are already almost 600 comments and tributes by readers.

(Crossposted to An Unsealed Room)

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