I Never Saw Another Butterfly

Program

Song: Ich wandre durch Teresienstadt	Ilse Weber (1903-1944)
Poem: Home	Franta Bass
Four Songs on Chinese Poetry Zaslech jsem divoké husy V bambusovém háji  Daleko mĕsíc je domova Probdĕná noc	Pavel Haas (1899-1944)
Poem: Birdsong	Anonymous
I Never Saw Another Butterfly At Terezin I’d Like to Go Alone The Little Mouse The Garden The Butterfly	Joel Hardyk (composed 1980) poem by Teddy poem by Alena Synkovà poem by Miroslav Košek, Hanuš Löwy and Bachner poem by Franta Bass poem by Pavel Friedmann
Song: Ukolèbavka	Gideon Klein (1919-1945)
Song: Sonnenuntergang	Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944)
Song: Wiegala	Ilse Weber

Texts and Translations

Ich wandre durch Teresienstadt (sung in German)
Ich wander durch Teresienstadt, das Herzso schwer wie Blei,  Bis jäh mein Weg ein Ende hat,  dort knapp an der Bastei.	I wander through Theresienstadt, my heart is heavy as lead. Till suddenly my way ends right there by the bulwark.
Dort bleib ich auf der Brücke stehn und schau ins Tal hinaus: ich möcht so gerne weiter gehn,  ich möcht so gern nach Haus!	I stand there on the bridge and look down into the valley: I’d like so much to go farther, I’d like so much to go home!
Nach Haus! – du wunderbares Wort, du machst das Herz mir schwer. Man nahm mir mein Zuhause fort,  nun hab ich keines mehr.	Home! – You strange word, you make my heart feel heavy. My home has been taken away from me now I no longer have one.
Ich wende mich betrübt und matt, So schwer wird mir dabei:  Theresienstadt, Theresienstadt, wann wohl das Leid ein Ende hat, wann sind wir wieder frei?	I turn away, saddened and weary, how hard it is to do so! Theresienstadt, Theresienstadt, when will our suffering end? When shall we again be free?
Home (spoken poem)
I look, I look into the wide world, into the wide, distant world. I look to the southeast, I look, I look toward my home. I look toward my home, The city where I was born. City, my city, I will gladly return to you.
Čtyři písně na slova činské poezie	Four Songs on Chinese Poetry
(sung in Czech)
Zaslech jsem divoké husy	I heard the wild geese
Domov je tam, daleko tam mĕlo bys domů, zbloudilé srdce!	Your homeland is there far away in the distance, you should go home, my errant heart!
Za cizí noci, v podzimním dešti,  když nejvíc studil smutku chladný van  ve vysokém domĕ svém zaslech jsem křik divokých husí	In the strange night-time, in the autumn rain, when one feels most the chill wind of sorrow: in my highland home I heard the whooping of wild geese.
Právě přilétly.	They have just returned.
V bambusovém háji	In the bamboo grove
V bambusech nejsou lidé, v bambusech sedím sám, tu na loutnu zahraju tiše,  tu sobĕ zahvízdám.	In the bamboo grove no human soul, In the bamboo grove I sit alone, here I play quietly on my lute, here I whistle to myself.
Kdo, řekněte, lidé, kdo ví,  kde v bambusech sedím sám a na východ srpečku luny bambusem pozírám?	Who then, dear people, who knows, where I sit alone in the bamboo and through the culms gaze on the rising crescent moon?
Daleko mĕsíc je domova	The moon is far from home
A temného moře                                             vyrůstá měsíc.                                                            V daleké zemi                                                 ted rozkvétá též.	Out of the dark sea the moon rises In a distant land it now also waxes.
Láska svůj truchlí                                            daremný sen                                                   čeká na vzdálený večer.                                 Jasněji měsíc                                                  svítí v hoře mé.                                                Oblékam noční šat,                                         chladné je jíní.	Love laments its vain dream, it waits for the distant evening. The moon shines more brightly upon my grief. I put on night clothes, the hoarfrost is cold.
Ruce mé, ruce, kterak jste prázdné, říci to všechno!  Spánku, sen dej mi o návratu domů! Spánku, sen nemůžeš dát: mé toužení stále mne budí	My arms, my hands, you are too weak To write all that down! O sleep, bring me a dream About going back home! O sleep, you cannot give me the dream: my longing keeps waking me.
Probdĕná noc	A sleepless night
Vĕtrem se bambus houpá,  na kámen mĕsíc sed. Do chvĕní Mléčné dráhy  stín divoké kachny vzlét.	The bamboo sways in the wind, the moon sites above a stone. Into the flickering Milky Way soars the shadow of a wild duck.
Na naše shledáni myslím,  víčka má míjí sen.  Zatím co radostí zpívam, strak repot vzbouzí už den.	I think of our reunion, Dreaming shuns my eyelids. While I sing for pleasure, The chattering of magpies already rouses the day.
La la la la la	La la la la la

Birdsong (spoken poem)
He who doesn’t know the world at all
Who stays in his nest and doesn’t go out.
He doesn’t know what birds know best
Nor what I want to sing about,
That the world is full of lovliness.
When dewdrops sparkle in the grass
And earth’s aflood with morning light,
A blackbird sings upon a bush
To greet the dawning after night.
Then I know how fine it is to live.
Hey, try to open up your heart
To beauty; go to the words someday
And weave a wreath of memory there.
Then if the tears obscure your way
You’ll know how wonderful it is
            To be alive.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

At Terezin
When a new child comes
Everything seems strange to him.
What, on the ground I have to lie?
Eat black potatoes? No! Not I!
I’ve got to stay? It’s dirty here!
The floor – why look, it’s dirt I fear!
And I’m supposed to sleep on it?
I’ll get all dirty!
Here the sound of shouting, ccries,
And oh, so many flies.
Everyone knows flies carry disease.
Oooh, something bit me!  Wasn’t that a bedbug?
Here in Terezin, life is hell
And when I’ll go home again, I can’t yet tell.

I’d Like to Go Alone
I’d like to go away alone
Where there are other, nicer people,
Somewhere into the far unknown,
There, where no one kills another.
Maybe more or us,
A thousand strong,
Will reach this goal
Before too long.

The Little Mouse
A mousie sat upon a shelf,
Catching fleas in his coat of fur.
But he couldn’t catch her – what chagrin! –
She’d hidden ‘way inside his skin.
He turned and wriggled, knew no rest,
That flea was such a nasty pest!
His daddy came
And searched his coat.
He caught the flea and off he ran
To cook her in the frying pan.
The little mouse cried , “Come and see!
For lunch we’ve got a nice, fat flea!”

The Garden
A little garden,
Fragrant and full of roses.
The path is narrow
And a little boy walks along it.
A little boy, a sweet boy,
Like that growing blossom.
When the blossom comes to bloom,
The little boy will be no more.

The Butterfly
The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
            against a white stone . . .
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ‘way up high.
It went away I’m sure because it wished to
            Kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here,
            In the ghetto.

Ukolebavka  (sung in Hebrew)	Lullaby
Sleep, my child, sleep in peace, don't cry so bitterly  Next to you sits your mother watching out for all evil.	Sch'chav b'ni, sch'chav bimnucha al na tivke mara al jadcha joschevet  imcha schomeret mikol ra
The jackal howls in the wood the wind whistles,  Sleep, my child, sleep in peace\  sleep in peaceful slumber.	M'jalel bajaar hatan (NB word correction) haruach noschevet scham Sch'chav b'ni, sch'chav  bimnucha numa schan
The shadow of the night passes quickly One should not linger long, in the morning one must work  Tomorrow father will do the plowing  in the furrows father cries out, but you, my dear child, sleep in peaceful slumber	Lajla zel, jauf maher m'od. assur l'htazel, machar zarich laavod machar jeze aba lacharosch b'telem jelech haav ach ata b'ni  hakatan numa schan

Sonnenuntergang  (sung in German)
Wo bist du? trunken dämmert die Seele mir
Von all deiner Wonne; denn eben ist's,
Daß ich gelauscht, wie, goldner Töne
Voll, der entzückende Sonnenjüngling

Sein Abendlied auf himmlischer Leier spielt';
Es tönten rings die Wälder und Hügel nach.

Doch fern ist er zu frommen Völkern,
Die ihn noch ehren, hinweggegangen.

English Translation
Where are you? My intoxicated soul
surrenders to the wonder of you! It is as if
I had heard the golden notes
produced by the charming sun-youth,

as he plays a serenade on his celestial lyre.
The notes resound through the woods and hills,
even as he moves on to those pious folk
who still honor him.

Wiegala (sung in German)	Lullaby
Wiegala, wiegala, weier, der Wind spielt auf der Leier. Er spielt so süss im grünen Ried,  die Nachtigall, die singt ihr Lied. Wiegala, wiegala weier, der Wind spielt auf der Leier.	Wiegala, wiegala, weier, The wind plays on the lyre. It plays so sweetly in the green reeds. The nightingale sings its song. Wiegala, wiegala, weier, The wind plays on the lyre.
Wiegala, wiegala, werne, der Mond ist die Laterne, er steht am dunklen Himmelszelt  und schaut hernieder auf die Welt. Wiegala, wiegala, werne, der Mond ist die Laterne.	Wiegala, wiegala, werne, the moon is a lantern. It stands in the darkened firmament nd gazes down on the world. Wiegala, wiegala, werne, the moon is a lantern.
Wiegala, wiegala, wille, wie ist die Welt so stiller! Es stört kein Laut die süsse Ruh, schlaf, mein Kindchen, schlaf auch du. Wiegala, wiegala, wille, wie ist die Welt so stiller!	Wiegala, wiegala, wille,  how silent is the world! No sound disturbs the lovely peace. Sleep, my little child, sleep too. Wiegala, wiegala, wille, how silent is the world!

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