Rubajati
Completion year
2000
Duration
13
Scored for
mixed choir
Other titles
Rubaiyat
About
This seven-movement composition for mixed choir was created 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 a musical foundation. Rubaiyat is dedicated to conductor Urša Lah, as a gesture of gratitude for her outstanding performances of the choral piece Sonnet No. 19 (set to Shakespeare’s text) around the turn of the millennium. The selected Khayyam texts—imbued with an Anacreontic and mystical view on human transience—thus resonate with Shakespeare’s “devouring claws of time,” which relentlessly consume all that is beautiful. These millennia-old verses have endured because humanity, and its relationship to beauty, has changed little over the centuries. The musical structure of the individual movements subtly reflects this idea.
Premiere
APZ Tone Tomšič, conducted by Urša Lah, 31.5.2008, Slovenska filharmonija
Language
Slovenian
Lyrics by
Omar Khayyam, translation into slovene: Alojz Gradnik
Lyrics / Vocal text
[Omar Hajam / Alojz Gradnik: 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
Revision year
2008
Publishers
Ed.DSS 2022