Oratorio Terezin Text: Part 2

THE BUTTERFLY
Pavel Friedmann. b.Prague,January 7th 1921 deported to Terezin April 26th 1942 d. Auschwitz Sept 29th, 1944)

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
against a white stone
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly 'way up high.
It went way I'm sure because it wished to
kiss the world goodbye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live here,
In the ghetto.

HOMESICK
Anon 1943

I've lived in the ghetto here more than a year,
In Terezin, in the black town now,
And when I remember my old home so dear,
I can love it more than I did, somehow.

Ah, home, home,
Why did they tear me away?
Here the weak die easy as a feather
And when they die, they die forever.

I'd like to go back home again,
It makes me think of sweet spring flowers.
Before, when I used to live at home,
It never seemed so dear and fair.
I remember now those golden days?..
But maybe I'll be going there soon.

People walk along the street,
You see at once on each you meet
That there's a ghetto here,
A place of evil and fear
There's little to eat, and much to want,
Where bit by bit, it's horror to live.
But no one must give up!
The world turns, and times change.
Yet we all hope the time will come
When we'll go home again.
Now I know how dear it is
And often I remember it.

HOME
Franta (Frantisek) Bass. b. Brno, Sept.4th 1930 Deported to Terezin Dec.2nd 1941 d. Auschwitz Oct.28th 1944
I look, I look
Into the wide world,
Into the wide, distant world.
I look to the southeast,
I look, I look toward my home.
I look toward my home,
The city where I was born.
City, my city,
I will gladly return to you.

GOD:
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called my son.
The more I called them,
The more they went from me (Hosea 11: 1-2)

Arise my love, my fair one, and come away,
for now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land. (Song of Solomon 2: 10-12)

I AM A JEW
Franta (Frantisek) Bass. b. Brno, Sept.4th 1930 Deported to Terezin Dec.2nd 1941 d. Auschwitz Oct.28th 1944

I am a Jew and will be a Jew forever.
Even if I should die from hunger,
Never will I submit.
I will always fight for my people,
On my honour.
I will never be ashamed of them,
I give my word.
I am proud of my people,
How dignified they are.
Even though I am suppressed,
I will always come back to life.

GOD:
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms;
But they did not know that I healed them. (Hosea 11:3)
How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel? (Hosea 11:8)

THE PROPHET:
A voice on the bare heights is heard,
The plaintive weeping of Israel's children?(Jeremiah 3:21)

GOD:
Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.
O my dove in the cleft of the rock, in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face, let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. (Song of Solomon 2:13-14)

Oratorio Terezin Website © 2006 Ruth Fazal/Tributary Music, 296 Glebemount Ave, Toronto, Ontario M4C 3V3 Canada