Oratorio Terezin Text: Part 5

TEARS
Alena Synkova b. Prague Sept 24th 1926. Deported to Terezin Dec 22nd 1942 Returned home after liberation
And thereafter come..
tears.
without them
there is no life.
Tears
inspired by grief
tears
that fall like rain.

PROPHET (with the Voice of God)

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me?
To provide for those who mourn in Zion-
To give them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. (Isaiah 61 1-3)

BIRDSONG
Anon 1943

He doesn't know the world at all
Who stays in his nest and doesn't go out.
He doesn't know what birds know best
Nor what I want to sing about,
That the world is full of loveliness.

When dewdrops sparkle in the grass
And earth's aflood with morning light,
A blackbird sings upon a bush
To the greet the dawning after night.
Then I know how fine it is to live.

Hey, try to open up your heart to beauty,
Go to the woods someday
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if the tears obscure your way
You'll know how wonderful it is to be alive.

BIRDSONG 2
Anon

The poor thing stands there vainly,
Vainly he strains his voice.
Perhaps he 'll die. Then can you say
How beautiful is the world today?

(Prophet)
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
until her vindication shines out like the dawn,
and her salvation like a burning torch?..
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be called Forsaken and
your land shall no more be called Desolate,
but you shall be called My Delight is in Her and your land Married.
For as a young man marries a young woman,
so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.(Isaiah 62:1-5)

ON A SUNNY EVENING
Anon 1944

On a purple, sun-shot evening
Under wide-flowering chestnut trees
Upon the threshold full of dust
Yesterday, today, the days are all like these.

Trees flower forth in beauty,
Lovely too their very wood all gnarled and old
That I am half afraid to peer
Into their crowns of green and gold.

The sun has made a veil of gold
So lovely that my body aches.
Above, the heavens shriek with blue
convinced I've smiled by some mistake.
The world's abloom and seems to smile.
I want to fly but where, how high?
If in barbed wire, things can bloom
Why couldn't I? I will not die!

(Prophet ) spoken over orchestral finale
See, your salvation comes;
His reward is with him,
And His recompense before Him
You shall be called 'The Holy People.
The Redeemed of the Lord'
And you shall be called 'Sought Out, A City not Forsaken'
(Isaiah 62:12)

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