Who Shall I Say is Calling?
This one should deepen your spiritual prep for High Holidays: Leonard Cohen performing his “Who By Fire” with able assistance from the great Sonny Rollins on shofar (I mean tenor sax…) I believe it was taped on “Night Music with David Sanborn” back in 1989.
And who by fire, who by water,
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
Who in your merry merry month of may,
Who by very slow decay,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
And who by avalanche, who by powder,
Who for his greed, who for his hunger,
And who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident,
Who in solitude, who in this mirror,
Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand,
Who in mortal chains, who in power,
And who shall I say is calling?
I think this is a great piece of music, but always feel obliged to note:
“WHOM shall I say is calling?”
I LOVE this song and always think of it as “the Yom Kippur song”
Speaking of Leonard Cohen, apparently he’s performing in Israel tomorrow night. My friend, Gili Bar-Hillel Semo, is going to the concert, and to share her excitement, she posted a link on Facebook to her Hebrew translation of his song Hallelujah. Check it out. (And if it lends any additional credibility, she’s not just some Israeli fan with a blog – she’s a professional translator, probably best known for the Hebrew-language editions of the Harry Potter books.)