DERW

Mikhail

Behind the song - Anna Georgina

The song 'Mikhail' is about a friend of my fathers - Michael Markoff. The two met when my father was in his second year as a postgraduate student in the École Biblique in Jerusalem.  The year was 1926, my father 25, Michael 17 years old and a pupil at Jerusalem Men’s College.  My father soon found a home from home with Mikhail and his mother Nadia.

Mikhail’s life had been blighted when he was nine, his father was shot by Bolsheviks in the family home in Sevastopol - Mikhail in the room next door and his mother away (Mikhail's father was a submarine commander in the Tsarist navy).  My father saw tremendous potential in Mikhail, and by the end of the academic year the pair were spending their free days together exploring the wilderness around Jerusalem.  The song is written from the perspective of my father - describing Mikhail's life and the time the two spent together.Forty years later my father dedicated his book The Desert a City to Mikhail – the culmination of the work they had started in Palestine in 1926.

Mikhail

Mi ddaeth y dydd, o Palesteina.

Dau estron ar drothwy'r byd

Gadewais innau ‘nglwad a'n nheulu agos am yr awyr las

Mikhail fy nghyfaill, Mikhail tyrd ata i.

Ti ofn, rhy ofn, dy annwyl gartref y glec o'r gwn

Mikhail fy nghyfaill, Mikhail ti’n ffrind i mi.

Lle oedd dy Fam? dy Dad difywyd wrth y tan

Galaru wrth rhodio'r anialdir

Dy daflu dros y byd, yn un o blant aneirif

Nes ti dy fywyd fel enaid oedd ynghyd

Fedrai dy achub di, ma chwyldo'r byd yn llethol rhydd

Mikhail fy nghyfaill, Mikhail paid colli ffydd

Ti ofn, rhy ofn, dy annwyl gartref y glec o'r gwn

Mikhail fy nghyfaill, Mikhail ti’n ffrind i mi.

Lle oedd dy Fam? dy Dad difywyd wrth y tan

Galaru wrth rhodio'r anialdir