| A Walk to Caesarea | |
| Author: | Hannah Senesh |
| Original Title Lang: | he |
| Written: | 1942 |
| Language: | Hebrew |
"A Walk to Caesarea" (Hebrew: הליכה לקיסריה, Halikha LeKeisarya), also commonly known by the opening words "Eli, Eli" (Hebrew: אֵלִי, אֵלִי, "My God, My God") in the song version, is a poem in Hebrew written in 1942 by Hungarian Jewish WWII resistance fighter Hannah Szenes,[1] which Israeli composer David Zehavi set to music in 1945.[2] Szenes wrote the poem while residing in kibbutz Sdot Yam which is located a short distance along the Mediterranean coast from the ancient port town of Caesarea.
The song is considered one of Israel's unofficial anthems,[2] and is the most-commonly played song on Yom HaShoah (the Holocaust Remembrance Day) in Israel.[3]
The following is an English translation of the song version:[4]
My God, my God,
may it never end –
the sand and the sea,
the rustle of the water,
the lightning of the sky,
the prayer of man.
In Hebrew, the poem reads:
אלי, אלי, שלא יגמר לעולם
החול והים
רשרוש של המים
ברק השמים
תפילת האדם