Rubajati
Completion year
2010
Duration
13 min
Scored for
mixed choir
About
Rubajati is a seven-movement composition for mixed choir, conceived as a tribute to the nearly thousand-year-old poetry of the Persian poet Omar Khayyam. The verses, translated into Slovene by Alojz Gradnik, were selected and arranged subjectively as the textual foundation of the work. The composition is dedicated to conductor Urša Lah, in gratitude for her outstanding performances of the choral work Sonnet No. 19 (based on a text by William Shakespeare) around the turn of the millennium. The selection of Khayyam’s verses—imbued with both an Anacreontic and a mystical reflection on human transience—thus resonates with Shakespeare’s image of the “claws of time,” relentlessly devouring all that is beautiful. The survival of these thousand-year-old verses suggests that human nature, as well as our relationship to beauty, has changed very little over the centuries. The musical structure of the individual movements subtly reflects this idea.
Premiere
APZ Tone Tomšič
Additional performances
Slovenski komorni zbor, Urša Lah
Language
Slovenian
Lyrics by
Omar Hajam / transl. Alojz Gradnik
Lyrics / Vocal text
Rubajati
1
Pij vino, pij, pij vina rdeči sok,
Da lice bledo ti poškrlati!
Saj veš kako le kratek čas nam je ostati tu;
Kdor gre od tod, nazaj ga več ne bo.
2
Naj mi zadoni v tej divji pušči tvoj pojoči glas,
Pa se puščava v raj izpremeni.
3
Za hip na pragu uničenja postoj,
Za hip samo življenja užij napoj!
Cvet tisočer je zjutraj zacvetel
In tisočer je v prahu ovenel.
Gotovo to je: čas beži, nazaj
Ne pride več, vse drugo pa je laž!
Osut je cvet umrl za vekomaj.
4
Ko v nič izpito vino se zgubi
In ustnice, ki jih poljubljal si,
Pomisli, kaj boš. – Nič.
Tako ne boš nič manj,
kar bil si že dozdanje dni.
5
Nenehno piše v noči in za dne
Usode prst, ne Um tvoj, ne srce,
Ne zbriše vrste pol in ne spero
Besede ene same vse solze.
S prstjo je prvo zgneten zadnji lik,
Še zadnjo žetev je vsejal ornik:
Kar je napisal stvarstva prvi zor,
Prebral nam bo na zadnji dan sodnik.
6
Napolni, ljuba, vrč, da se vtopi
V njem kes minulih, strah prihodnjih dni.
Kaj jutri bo?- Morda bom jutri sam
pogreznjen v mrak stotisočih noči.
7
Prišel kot voda sem, kot veter grem.
Dedicated to
Urša Lah
Publishers
DSS