Ani kinor: what "אני כינור" really means in Hebrew

Word by word

Hebrew needs no verb "to be" in the present tense, so two words are already a full sentence: pronoun + noun. That is why ani kinor is grammatical Hebrew and not a fragment.

• אֲנִי ani — I
• כִּנּוֹר kinor — violin (from כנר kanar, a violinist)
• אֲנִי כִּנּוֹר ani kinor — I am a violin (no word for "am")
• לְכָל שִׁירַיִךְ lechol shirayich — for all your songs (feminine "your", addressed to Jerusalem)

How to pronounce it

Say ah-NEE kee-NOR. Stress falls on the last syllable of both words, as it usually does in Hebrew. The doubled nun in כִּנּוֹר is not pronounced twice in modern Israeli Hebrew; the dagesh only hardens the opening kaf to a k sound.

Where the line comes from

The phrase closes Naomi Shemer's Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold, 1967). After the verses describe a city cut off — cisterns dry, the market empty, no one going down to the Dead Sea by the Jericho road — the final verse reverses it: the shofar sounds, the gates reopen, and the singer answers with אֲנִי כִּנּוֹר לְכָל שִׁירַיִךְ, "I am a violin for all your songs".

The image is deliberately humble. She does not say she writes the songs; she says she is the instrument they pass through. That is why Israelis quote the line at memorials, at reunions and at the end of ceremonies.

Two words you now own

Kinor is a useful everyday noun, not only a poetic one: כִּנּוֹר kinor a violin, כַּנָּר kanar a violinist, לְנַגֵּן בְּכִנּוֹר lenagen bekinor to play the violin. And the pattern ani + noun builds hundreds of true beginner sentences: אֲנִי מוֹרֶה ani moreh (I am a teacher), אֲנִי עָיֵף ani ayef (I am tired), אֲנִי מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל ani mi'Yisrael (I am from Israel).

Frequently asked questions