Product Description
Program Notes: The fact that the text for this work even exists is a miracle.
It was written by Abraham ("Abramek") Koplowicz, a Jewish boy who was exterminated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Abramek was born in 1930 in Lodz, Poland, and died 1944 in that country's infamous concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
He wrote this poem during the time that his family was trapped in the Lodz ghetto.
This poem was not found until 1983 when Eliezer ("Lolek") Grynfeld, the poet's half-brother, discovered it among their late father's belongings.
Choristers who sing this work will be transported on a magical flight around the world through time and space along with their audiences.
A Dream (Marzenie)
When I am twenty years of age,
I will burst forth from this cage
And begin to see our splendid Earth
For the first time since my birth!
In my motorized bird Ill soar so high
Above the world, up in the sky,
Over rivers and the seas,
With such stupefying ease,
With my brother wind and sister cloud, Ill
Marvel at the Euphrates and the Nile;
The goddess Isis ruled the land that links
The Pyramids and the massive Sphynx.
I will glide above Niagara Falls,
And sunbathe where the Sahara calls;
If I want to escape the scorching heat,
I will fly up north to an Arctic retreat.
I will top the cloudy peaks of Tibetan fame
And survey the fabled land whence the Magi came.
From the Island of Kangaroos
Ill take my time and cruise
To the ruins of Pompeii
At the edge of Naples Bay,
Ill continue to the Holy Land, then seek
The home of Homer, the celebrated Greek.
More and more astonished will I grow
At the beauty of the Earth below.
In all my travelling Ill be twinned
With my siblings, cloud and wind.
Abraham (Abramek) Koplowicz
(b. 1930, Lodz, Poland, d. 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau)
Translation by Sarah Lawson and Małgorzata Koraszewska
© Copyright 1993 by Eliezer Grynfeld. All rights reserved.
Used by permission of Eliezer Grynfeld.
Music: © Copyright 2024 by Stanley M. Hoffman.
www.stanleymhoffman.com
All rights reserved.
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