Fun vayte teg (1977)—a poem about man’s relationship with God in terms of man’s dual capacity for good and evil, for kindness and brutality, and how this duality can exist in the presence of a beneficent deity—is designed as two parallel strophes with a developmental continuation. The song is unusual in that it ends in passionate, almost desperate affirmation with the words “That ancient joy, that God is here.”
Poet: H. Leivick [Leivick Halpern] (1886–1962)
From long-gone days an old song
Resounds in me with a fresh rhythm.
A call to prayer, an evening supplication
To the One who hears, to the One who sees.
To the One who spreads out His bounty, His goods,
And brings compassion and consolation and protection.
To the one who guards, to the one who shields
My pupil and my step.
To the one who shines
His light Deep into my being, and cradles me in.
What a joy in this late hour,
That ancient joy, that God is here.
Poet: H. Leivick [Leivick Halpern] (1886–1962)
fun vayte teg an alt gezang
hilkht op in mir mit frish geklang.
a tfile-ruf, a nakhtgebet
tsu dem vos hert, tsu dem vos zet.
tsu dem vos shpreyt zayn gob, zayn guts
un brengt gnod un treyst un shuts
tsu dem vos vakht, tsu dem vos hit
mayn shvartsapl un mayn trit.
tsu dem vos tut zayn likht arayn
mir tif in layb, un vigt mikh ayn.
a freyd aza in shpeter sho—
di alte freyd vos got iz do.
Performers: Robert Abelson, Baritone; Barry Snyder, Piano
Translations and Transliterations: Eliyahu Mishulovin
Preliminary preparations by Adam J. Levitin
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