Train / Lali Tsipi Michaeli
Train
At the age of 7 I left Georgia as an immigrant to Israel with my parents and two brothers.
We arrived at the train-station with the feeling of a one-way ticket. We travelled until Moscow
and before passing one whole day and night in a magnificent hotel we took another train to
Vienna from there we took a plane to Israel. We landed on another planet. It was mid-
January 1972. Since then from my point of view trains have been symbols of departure. Of
self-analysis. Of new life. Of loss. Not to mention the Jewish DNA that runs on the collective
memory of the train-tracks or vice-versa. There is nothing for me that symbolizes so
strongly the wandering the displacement and human sadness like the train. Even if it's a new
train racing along tracks raised on columns to allow the world's other creatures non-stop
transport. When I want to bring these things to light in my memory everything changes to a
collage of the trains I've seen in my life, in reality as well as in films, documentaries or art-
house. The train has turned into trainness and I don't know to whom I belong.
translated from Hebrew by:
Alexa Christopher-Daniels
in English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw16nGcLfHE
in Hebrew (my voice)
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3923511,00.html
Copyright © Lali Tsipi Michaeli | Year Posted 2010
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