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לפני 14 שנים ו-2 חודשים סיפור חיים באנגלית, פרק 5 A.B.
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Chapter five: Herzlia.
Herzlia is named after the most famous Jewish dreamer, who while standing on his balcony in basel Switzerland had a vision. He even wrote a book about it. It’s called Alt-new-land, in that book he wrote about a Jewish state that will arise on the ruins of the holy land, and it will reunite the children of Abraham, (namely the suffering Jews) from all over the world, and they will live here in perfect harmony forever and ever.
His name was Theodor Herzel, and as unbelievable as it is, he was right, except for a few little details. Anyway, this is where David and Ma rented an apartment. It had three bedrooms; a kitchen, a bathroom, a separate toilet, (this was considered luxury at the time) and a hall with doors all around, connecting all the rooms. The smallest one had space merely for one single bed. That was Tsubi’s place; it was natural that she got the single bedroom, so she could enjoy her privacy from time to time. (Most of the time she preferred company.) The big room served as living room, during the day, and as the parent’s bedroom at night. The third room served both as weavers store for David, and as my sleeping corner, which I shared with Jacky. In the center stood the huge wooden loom, literally filling most of the space. David made hand-woven floor-rugs, so that besides of this wooden monster, there were piles of rugs lying all over the place. David’s sons, Samuel and Aaron who had left the Kibbutz, and Jacob who had also returned home from his Aunt who kept sweeping the floor after every step he made, slept in the hall.
All the men of the family went to work, except for Jacky who was still a child, (I was a man already, fourteen years of age.) In the afternoon we had to queue in front of the employment office, fighting our way to the porthole, to get from an angry clerk, a slip of paper with the name and the location of your next day’s job. It was not exactly a career in some high-tech company. The only jobs available these days, (and not just for us, who had no profession.) were in the fields, bent over, picking weeds or vegetables. If you were lucky, you would be the one to carry the filled boxes to the donkey’s cart. At the end of the day, we received our salary in a brown paper bag, and gave it to David.
Denise was liberated from the British concentration camp in Cyprus, where she and her group were deported when they tried to immigrate illegally to Israel. So now that she joined us, we were nine in the house altogether. Denise set her bed literally under the loom, and it was quite convenient because she had plenty of room to put her belongings, which consisted of some clothes, and a pile of pocket-books, that she kept reading whenever she was free from her duties, these included working in the fields from half past seven in the morning, till four in the afternoon, washing the dishes after diner, and now and then swiping the floors, a real Cinderella. Ma was to tired most of the time, to take care of the house, and Tsubi had a headache whenever she was asked to give a hand. Still there were the weekends, holidays, and the days when we were unemployed. Then Denise would lie in bed the whole day, reading and nibbling some biscuits or whatever was edible. We used to hang green banana bunches, to ripen on the loom, once Denise finished a book and a whole bunch of bananas in one single day. On another occasion, that was on a Passover (during Passover, we eat a dry, thin, square, special kind of bread, called Matzos. A package of them weighs about two kilograms.) Denise, deeply involved in the romantic story of her book ate a whole package of them in a few hours.
At the dinner table, I tried to guess how much she weighs,
You must be over a hundred kilograms. I said.
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Denise sneaked quietly behind me and hit me on my back, just when I was about to bite into a piece of chicken. It went straight into my windpipe; I was grasping for air. The whole family was sitting at the table, staring at me, but nobody moved. Are they going to let me choke to death? It seemed like hours until Samuel came over, squeezed my chest, and I finally regained my breath. Denise was standing there, her hands on her hips, motionless watching the scene.
You are wrong; it’s only ninety-nine kilograms. She said with the most innocent expression. I checked an hour ago. You should be more accurate next time.
At work she was a real friend. We used to stand in line together, at the employment office, and apply for the same jobs. In most cases it was picking vegetables or fruit. Then in the field she was much faster than me. (I must admit that agility was never a strong point in me.) I was always behind the rest of the group. I would get in trouble if the manager would notice how slow I am. Every few minutes, Denise would change rows with me so we kept up with the rest of the group.
Apart from being backbreaking, the work was very boring. So she used to tell the story of the last film that she had seen, to the tiniest detail. We used to go to the movie almost every day. Once a week I viewed the picture from a seat inside the theatre, that was all I could afford from the weekly allowance I got from David, (the whole family, except Jacky, went every other day,) the rest of the week I watched the film perched on a five-meter high window. (There was no air-conditioning at the time, so the movie theaters had to leave open windows.) Climbing up there was not an easy task at all, and if it were not for Benny who was a movie fan as well, it would never occur to me that these windows are accessible without a ladder. Benny was about my age. I met him one day at the cinema entrance, while I was pondering over the dilemma, which film to choose. (There was only one movie theatre in Herzlia at the time, and they screened every day a different picture.)
Which one would you choose? I asked the boy standing beside me.
I don’t have to choose, he said, I’ll see them all.
I can’t afford more than one film a week, so I have to make a choice, I said.
Wait here till the movie starts, and I’ll show you how you can watch movies as much as you like, he said.
The building had square concrete pillars sticking out of the walls on both sides of each window. Benny shifted himself up leaning his back on one pillar his feet on the other one. I did the same, and from then on, I climbed up there every day. I did not miss a picture even on cold winter nights, until I got pneumonia. The first days in bed were quite pleasant. I could read the whole day, Ma brought my meals to bed, so I could finally rest from the work that I hated more and more. One morning, Ma came in with my breakfast on a plate, she was telling me something while she was arranging my pillow, but, I couldn’t hear a word. I have become totally deaf.
I can’t hear you! I said crying. I am deaf; tears were flowing down on mother’s cheeks too.
Don’t cry. I will call the doctor and he will see what he can do, said Ma Sobbing.
What can he do? This is not a curable disease. I yelled hysterically, what kind of life is it, if I can’t hear? I would rather die!
The doctor came in, pointed a flashlight into my ear, and declared that the deafness was temporary, and it will disappear when the inflammation will be cured. He gave Ma a prescription for some antibiotics, and returned to his clinic. He was right, a few days later I was healthy and hearing again, but I never climbed up to those windows again.
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Benny introduced me to the young labor youth organization, where we used to gather on Friday evening, and participate in different kinds of activities. What we liked most was fooling around with the girls. The evening would begin with some kind of social or political discussion, (that was the boring part,) after that we used to sing and dance. Most of the Israeli folksongs and dances at the time were translations from Russian songs and dances. That I enjoyed a lot, especially those dances where you lifted the girl high up in the air, when they went down their skirts went up and revealed the panties. We had nothing else on our minds but sex, we used to call it romance, and it really was in some way, for instance, the Zafrira episode. Lovely Zafrira happened to sit beside me every Friday. And at the dance, she accepted my invitations eagerly, so I considered her my girlfriend. On her birthday, the whole young labor group was invited to her house. I went there full of expectations, but it turned out that she was more interested in a guy from a senior group named Ygal. After a few dances she had with him I went over, claiming my right.
Get lost. He said, don’t you see she is not interested?
You are forcing yourself on her. I said, leave her alone.
Wipe off the milk traces of your mouth. He said, hinting that I’m still a baby, and he pushed me aside. That was too much; I had to save my pride.
You want a fight? So let’s go outside and I’ll show you who …
Ygal did not wait for a ceremonial duel. Before I finished my sentence, he grabbed me by my thumb and bent it backwards, forcing me to the ground. I couldn’t hold back the tears from the humiliation as much as from the pain. The next Friday, Zafrira came and sat beside me as if nothing had happened, but I was hurt, so I moved over to try my luck with Ziona. Should I describe the beauty of Ziona? I will not for two reasons. First, because it is becoming repetitious, and second, I’m not sure that she really was as gorgeous as I remember her. Ziona lived in a farm on the outskirts of Herzlia, so I offered to take her home on my bicycle. I rode the bike zigzagging along the way, so she had to hold on to me to keep from falling off. Her hand sent shudders down my spine. When we reached her home, we didn’t want to separate yet, so I suggested that we take a walk in the fields. The sky was clear with a full moon, and countless shining stars. We walked side by side in total silence; I had no idea what a boy says to a girl in such a situation. My mind was full of phrases mostly from pictures, but none of them seemed adequate. Should I say that I fell I love with her from first sight? She new, that were it not for the shameful episode, at Zafrira’s birthday party, I wouldn’t be with her. I wanted to hug her, or at least put my arm around her shoulder, but I didn’t dare. After a long while Ziona broke the silence, she looked at her watch and said.
You have got fifteen minutes to do what you want to; at midnight I have to be home.
My heart beat so hard she must have heard it. I visualized myself taking off her clothes, laying her down on the grass, and making love with her. There was not a single boy in my group who had no stories about his sexual achievements with women. I was more than fourteen years of age, and the only one who hadn’t made it yet. But I was paralyzed. I am not sure what she expected, but I could at least have hugged and kissed her. All I did was walking her home without a word.
On the doorsteps I will kiss her goodnight. I said to myself, but when we arrived at her doorsteps, she simply ran up the stairs, shouted good night over her shoulder and vanished into the house. I never dared looking into her eyes again.
הוסף תגובה | קישור ישיר להודעה-
לפני 14 שנים ו-2 חודשים יש סיכוי לתרגום? אֵרִיַה (ל"ת)
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לפני 14 שנים ו-2 חודשים שלום לך,נערה אנונימית. A.B.
העקבות בקשתך, ושל עוד כמה מתעניינים, התחלתי לתרגם את "סיפור חיים" לעברית, בינתיים סיימתי פרק אחד, אני מקווה שתהני מקריאתו.
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לפני 14 שנים ו-2 חודשים תודה רבה אֵרִיַה
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לפני 14 שנים ו-2 חודשים תודה על ההתעינינות, A.B.
אם אינך קוראת אנגלית, איך את יודעת שזה בכלל מעניין? אם יהיו מתעניינים רבים, אעשה את המאמץ
ואתרגם את הסיפור לעברית. עד כה כתבתי למעלה משלושים פרקים, כך שזה יהיה מבצע לא פשוט.
הוסף תגובה | קישור ישיר להודעה-
לפני 14 שנים ו-2 חודשים אני מתעניינת בכל סיפור שהוא אֵרִיַה
והסיפור שלך נראה מעניין על פי השם
אני מסוקרנת לקרוא אבל אני מתקשה באנגלית
כמובן שאוכל להכניס למתרגם של גוגל אבל התוצאה תהיה זוועתית
ואני לא אהיה בטוחה שלכך הכוונה
אני מאוד רוצה לקרוא את הסיפור
הוסף תגובה | קישור ישיר להודעה
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