​In honor of the 79th anniversary of the death of the poet Hayim Nahman Bialik, we present his famous poem "Take Me Under Your Wings". A number of melodies have been composed for the poem over the years, and we have chosen to present you with a folk meldoy, as well as melodies by Samuel Alman, Nurit Hirsh and Miki Gavrielov, performed, respectively, by the tenor David Halperin, Nechama Hendel, Yoni Nameri, and Arik Einstein. All of the melodies accentuate the lyrics of this now-classic poem: "Take me under your wing, be my mother and sister, let your bosom be my shelter, a nest for my distant prayers ."

The poem is a love poem, conveying longing for love,
and simultaneously expressing bitter disappointment. 

The last verse conveys the poet's great crisis:

I was deceived by the stars.
There was a dream; it passed.
I have nothing at all in the world,
nothing but a vast waste.

Translation: 1981, Ruth Nevo, Chaim Nachman Bialik: The Selected Poems  Dvir, Tel Aviv, 1981.

The melodies work to soften and relieve that feeling, and reveal, once again, the power of music to transform "nothing" into "something" by providing a cure for emptiness.