Written by Haim Gouri at the end of the War of Independence and most famously sung by The Nachal Band, a military entertainment troupe, this moving song is a memorial to the 1% of the population who lost their lives during the war, many of whom were Holocaust survivors and new immigrants. The lyrics, translated below in English, speak of the deep bond of friendship forged between these strangers who fought together for the establishment of the Jewish state. This was known as Yitzhak Rabin’s favorite song.Â
The Friendship
In the Negev, the autumn night falls,
And it kindles the stars in the quiet,
As the breeze rustles outside the door
And the dust settles down on the highway.
Time goes on, do we notice at all
How the months have gone by one by one?
Time goes by, there are few of us left,
And so many we once knew are gone.
Chorus
They are gone from our midst,
All their laughter, their youth and their splendor.
But we know that a friendship like that,
We are bound all our lives to remember,
For a love that in battle is forged,
Will endure while we live, fierce and tender.
Oh, the friendship we bore without words,
It was silent and grey, it was wordless.
From the pain and the blood of those days,
It remains with us, ardent and yearning.
In the name of that friendship we know,
In its name we’ll go on, every forward,
For those friends, when they fell on their swords,
Left us this precious gift to recall them.
Chorus
They are gone from our midst,
All their laughter, their youth and their splendor.
But we know that a friendship like that,
We are bound all our lives to remember,
For a love that in battle is forged,
Will endure while we live, fierce and tender.