אֶחָד | One, a song by Harry Nilsson (1967)

Name: אֶחָד | One, a song by Harry Nilsson (1967)
Uploaded: 2021-04-19T14:43:34-08:00
Channel: Aharon N. Varady (translation)
Description: A Hebrew translation of the lyrics to Harry Nilsson's "One" (1967) as sung by Aimee Mann (1995)

Contributor(s):

Harry Nilsson and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Shared on:

19 April 2021 under the Fair Use Right (17 U.S. Code §107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use)

Categories:

Sefirat ha-Omer

Tags:

20th century C.E., non-dual theology, זמירות zemirot, love-sickness, דע לפני מי אתה עומד Know Before Whom You Stand, counting songs, פיוטים piyyutim, 58th century A.M., Prayers as poems, English vernacular prayer, שכינה Shekhinah, loneliness, love your fellow as yourself

Here, deep in the sefirat haOmer, I’ve been thinking a lot about how Harry Nilsson’s song “One” and how it is such a profound take on the non-dual yet bifurcated transcendent/immanent (YHVH/Shekhinah) conception of divinity, and the ḳabbalistic midrash (originating with Shir haShirim Rabbah 5.2) of the Divine creating their twin/the Cosmos/Adam haQadmon out of the desperation of loneliness/longing, and how this all might relate to the legend of the Shekhinah’s attempt to take flight from the World before the Dor haMabul in 3 Enoch.

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Translation (Hebrew)	Source (English)
אחד	One
‏אֶחָד הוּא הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר שֶׁתַּעֲשֶׂה אֵי פַּעַם.‏ שְׁתַּיִם יָכוֹל לִהְיוֹת גָּרוּעַ כְּמוֹ אֶחָד. זֶהוּ הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר מֵאָז הַמִּסְפָּר אֶחָד.	One is the loneliest number That you’ll ever do Two can be as bad as one It’s the loneliest number since the number one
”לֹא“ הִיא הַחֲוָיָה הָעֲצוּבָה בְּיוֹתֵר שֶׁתַּכִּירוּ אֵי פַּעַם. כֵּן, זוֹ הַחֲוָיָה הָעֲצוּבָה בְּיוֹתֵר שֶׁתַּכִּירוּ אֵי פַּעַם.	No is the saddest experience You’ll ever know Yes, it’s the saddest experience You’ll ever know
מִכֵּיוָן שֶׁאֶחָד הוּא הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר שֶׁתַּעֲשׂוּ אֵי פַּעַם אֶחָד הוּא הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר שֶׁתַּכִּירוּ אֵי פַּעַם.	Because one is the loneliest number That’ll you’ll ever do One is the loneliest number That you’ll ever know
זֶה פָּשׁוּט כְּבָר לֹא טוֹב מֵאָז שֶׁעָזַבְתְּ.^[1] אוֹ שֶׁנֶּעְלַמְתְּ עַכְשָׁו אֲנִי מְבַלֶּה אֶת זְמַנִּי רַק בִּכְתִיבַת חֲרוּזִים מִִימֵי קֶדֶם.	It’s just no good anymore Since you went away Now I spend my time Just making rhymes Of yesterday
מִכֵּיוָן שֶׁאֶחָד הוּא הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר שֶׁתַּעֲשׂוּ אֵי פַּעַם אֶחָד הוּא הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר שֶׁתַּכִּירוּ אֵי פַּעַם.	Because one is the loneliest number That you’ll ever do One is the loneliest number That you’ll ever know
אֶחָד הוּא הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר. אֶחָד הוּא הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר. אֶחָד הוּא הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר שֶׁתַּעֲשֶׂה אֵי פַּעַם.	One is the loneliest number One is the loneliest number One is the loneliest number That you’ll ever do
אֶחָד הוּא הַמִּסְפָּר הַבּוֹדֵד בְּיוֹתֵר, כׇּל כָּךְ הַרְבֵּה יוֹתֵר גָּרוּעַ מִשְׁתַּיִם. אֶחָד הוּא מִסְפָּר חֶלְקֵי שְׁתַּיִם. (זֶה קַל.)	One is the loneliest number Much much worse than two One is a number divided by two (That’s easy)
שְׁתַּיִם חֶלְקֵי אֶחָד מְיֹעָד לִתְלוֹת אֶת הַפַּרְגּוֹד. וְאָז דָּבָר אֶחָד בָּטוּחַ: בְּלִי־מָֽה שֶׁיַּחֲזִיק אוֹתָם בְּיַחַד׃	Two divided by one is decided To bring down the curtain Then one thing’s for certain There’s nothing to keep them together

These are the lyrics to “One” by Harry Edward Nilsson (from his 1968 album Aerial Ballet), according to the girsah sung by Aimee Mann on the compilation For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson (1995). The Hebrew translation is my own. (Please offer any obvious corrections — thank you!) My hope in translating this song is to include it (among one or two others: “Invisible Sun” by the Police, and “Blue Sky” by the Allman Brothers) in a weekday siddur I am preparing. Since the lyrics to “One” will be under copyright until approximately 2064, by publishing this translation, I am expressing my Fair Use right under copyright law for the non-commercial and transformative use of the original work for religious practice. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	אוֹ שֶׁנֶּעְלַמְתְּ

17 U.S. Code 107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

“אֶחָד | One, a song by Harry Nilsson (1967)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project under their Fair Use Right (17 U.S. Code §107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use), in respect to the copyrighted material included. Any additional work that is not already in the Public Domain is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Harry Nilsson

Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), known professionally as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter.

Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer translator for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his translations, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot Naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also transcribes prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes for the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

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Works of related interest:

A figure in a woodcut illustration opposite the prayer Nishmat Kol Ḥai in a haggadah from Prague, 1526

אֶחָד מִי יוֹדֵעַ | Eḥad Mi Yode’a :: Who Knows One?, a counting song in Hebrew and Yiddish (Prague Haggadah, 1526)

חַד מָה יוּדָא | אֶחָד מִי יוֹדֵעַ | Ḥad Mah Yuda :: Who Knows One?, a counting-song in Aramaic translation

אֶחָד מִי יוֹדֵעַ | Unum (est &) quis scit? | Eḥad Mi Yode’a, a Latin translation of the counting song by Johann Stephan Rittangel (1644)

אֶחָד מִי יוֹדֵעַ | Якумин кӣ медонад | Yakumin Ki Medonad :: a Bukhori (Judeo-Tajik) Translation of Eḥad Mi Yodea by Rabbi Shimon ben Eliyahu Hakham (1904)

קיו סציאַס אונו? | אֶחָד מִי יוֹדֵעַ | Kiu Scias Unu? — an Esperanto translation of Eḥad Mi Yodéa by Erin Piateski (2010)

Italian Morra Players - Pieter Josselin de Jong (1895)

קְי ווֹלְירַה קְי אְינטְינדְירַה | אֶחָד מִי יוֹדֵעַ | Che volera, che entendera — a Judeo-Sienese translation of Eḥad Mi Yodea

Syrian or Egyptian Tile during the 15th century. Original from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

כָּאנְדְרִי נְדְרִיהוּם | אֶחָד מִי יוֹדֵעַ | Kaanₔdri Nₔdrihom — a Judeo-Moroccan Arabic (Darija) adaptation of Eḥad Mi Yodeaȝ

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17