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* Written for Kronos
** Written for Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire
^†   Arranged for Kronos

Tonight’s program will be performed without intermission. The program will last approximately 80 minutes.

The Sun Rises
Poem by Forough Farrokhzad
See how sorrow melts drop by drop
In my eyes
How my mutinous shadow
Becomes prey for the Sun
See
How my whole existence is in ruins
An ember set fire to my being
I am lifted to heights
I am trapped
See
How my entire horizon
Fills with shooting stars
You came from afar
From the land of perfume and light
You set me on a Stellar path
You take me beyond stars
Now that we are treading on heights
Wash me with waves of wine
Wrap me in the velvet of your kiss
Want me in the lasting nights
Leave me no more
Separate me not from these stars
See
How you shine and the Sun rises

—English translation by Sohrab Mahdavi

Vanishing Lines
Poem by Hafez
A life ring is my longing for you,
drowning, as I am, in wine
Advise the barrel to keep the air locked,
for the tavern is in ruins
The beloved is gone and in my tearful eyes
Her image can only be drawn in vanishing lines
Wake up my eyes for there is great peril
In this onslaught of sleep of mine
The mountains and plains are full and verdant
This world is but a passing current,
let us waste no time.

—English translation by Sohrab Mahdavi

My Ruthless Companion
Poem by Rumi
Oh my companion, my ruthless companion
My beloved and my treasurer, my ally and my secret bearer
On earth you are my moon, at midnight you are my morning dawn
Oh, my sweet mist, you are my protection in this storm
You find your way into my soul like a healing worm
You are my faith and my religion, a sea of gems brimming
You are a torch to night-farers, a rope to the drowning
You are a compass to any caravan, you are my guide
You are my cellmate in this prison, a laughing master at my side
To be in your presence requires a hundred times my best stride

—English translation by Sohrab Mahdavi

Vaya, Vaya
Poem by Mahsa Vahdat
Vaya, Vaya
I’ll have wings in your air
I’ll be a wave in your voice
I’ll be a flame in your flickering heat,
in my cries of wanting you
Bitterly I’ll twist in the veins of your vines
I’ll be a stubborn cloud in the tears of my
grief for you
Vaya, Vaya
I’ll grow green in my sorrow for your passing years
I’ll stay in love in the sun above your mountain tops
I’ll be tears in the purity of your streams
at one with my limitless hope for you
Vaya, Vaya

—English translation by Dick Davis

Translator’s note: The title, “Vaya, Vaya,” is the same word twice: it is a lamentation, an expression of grief. While it is similar to “Alas!” in English, the Persian word here is more colloquial, so as to mean “O God!” or “God help me!”

Placeless
Poem by Rumi
Muslims, what can I do?
I don’t know who I am.

I am neither Christian nor a Jew,
I am no Magian, no Muslim.

I am not from the East, nor from the West.
Not from the land, nor from the sea,

I am not from the shafts of nature,
nor from the spheres of the firmament,

I am not from India, not from China,
not from Bulghar, not from Saqsin
I am not from Babylon nor from the land of Persia.

I am not from the world, not from beyond
My place is placelessness. My trace is tracelessness.

—English translation by Mahsa Vahdat and Erik Hillestad

I Was Dead
Poem by Rumi
I was dead, I became alive, I was tears,
I became laughter
The happiness of love came,
and I became eternal happiness
My eyes are full of joy, I have a brave soul
I have courage like a lion, I became the shining Venus

He told me: you are not crazy enough,
you don’t deserve this home
I went and became crazy,
I was entangled with chains
He told me: you are not drunk,
go away, you don’t belong to this circle!
I went and became intoxicated,
I was filled with joy

I belong to you, my moon, come and
behold you and me!
Because of his laughter,
I became a laughing garden

—English translation by Mahsa Vahdat and Erik Hillestad