A Walk to Caesarea

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A Walk to Caesarea

A Walk to Caesarea is a Hebrew poem written in 1942 by Hannah Szenes, a Hungarian Jewish resistance fighter who died in 1944. She wrote it while living at Sdot Yam, a kibbutz on the Mediterranean coast not far from Caesarea.

The poem is often known by its opening line in its song form, Eli, Eli. In 1945, Israeli composer David Zehavi turned the poem into a song. The music helped make it one of Israel’s unofficial anthems and it is commonly performed on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Original title: Halikha LeKesarya (הליכה לקיסריה). Written in 1942 in Hebrew.

English translation (from the song version):
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.

Hebrew opening (original text):
אלי, אלי,
שלא יגמר לעולם
החול והים
רשרוש של המים
ברק השמים
תפילת האדם

Note: The article presents both the Hebrew text and an English translation of the poem and its song version, highlighting its cultural significance in Israel.