An old (
Hebrew) song I knew when I was a kid.
This song is
great for singing rounds, and
is apparently in lots of camp songbooks. I know this,
because I did a search on the Web and came up with
staggering amounts of these. The interesting part is,
there are
corrupted versions of the song with
narratives to preface them with, which strikes me
as marvelously
inventive. At one point I did find a
BBS wherein someone requested the proper words to
'
The Camel Song'. Camel Song, eh?
Here are the words I knew as a kid, (along with a
second paragraph I never knew the words to):
Hebrew:
Zum gali gali gali, Zum gali gali.
Zum gali gali gali. Zum gali gali.
He-chalutz l'ma-an avodah,
Avodah l'ma-an he-chalutz.
Zum gali gali gali, Zum gali gali.
Zum gali gali gali. Zum gali gali.
Ha-Shalom l'ma-an ha-Amim,
Ha-Amim l'ma-an ha-Shalom.
English:
Zum gali gali gali, Zum gali gali.
Zum gali gali gali. Zum gali gali.
The pioneer lives for his work,
The work exists for the pioneer.
Zum gali gali gali, Zum gali gali.
Zum gali gali gali. Zum gali gali.
Peace for all nations,
All nations for Peace.
And some explication of these lyrics:
'Pioneer' in this song is said to refer to the early
Israeli settlers. The pioneer lives to work,
and work is there as a
challenge to the pioneer.
Apparently, (
searching on Google brings up
the most interesting things) the first verse
is a
parable, too:
'Usually, once we've given a name
and a definition to a concept, little is left
for creativity besides embellishing and polishing. But
those who honestly pursue the primal question
are never done. There is always more to discover in
exploring the unlimited.'
And here is the 'Camel Song', with the words. Not that
these are the right words, they're not, but I think
it's admirable and deserves a spot here. Especially the
little narrative thing, which makes it very easy for
me to hear this song as a camel song.
Zum gali gali gali, zum gali gali.
Zum gali gali gali, zum gali gali.
La la la la la la la, la la la la la.
La la la la la la la, la la la la la.
Hock, suck, spit. Hock, suck, spit.
Hock, suck, spit. Hock, suck, spit.
Here's how it goes:
The song leader explains that in the desert,
you can hear the caravan trains with the camels
long before they pass by the villages. First,
faintly in the distance, you can hear the camel
drivers as they chant "Zum Gali gali". Then, as
they get closer, you can hear the singing of the
dancing girls. Finally, as the caravan draws
abreast of the village, you can even hear the
spitting of the camels. Then, as the train of animals
pass by, the first sound to disappear is the camels.
Next, the dancing girls fade into the distance and
finally the chanting of the camel drivers. Then,
only silence fills the air.
I like that. I really do.