By Katia Rjumina (2022)
Lyrics by Alja Khajtlina, used by permission of the author
Performers:
Zola Saadi-Klein, voice
Lynn Hutchinson, piano
Program notes:(from 2022) This is the first in a series of artsongs (the full cycle of which is still a work in progress) written on texts by the German-based Russian poet, Alja Khajtlina: every day, since the beginning of the war, she has posted a poem a day on her Facebook page describing the horrors of the current war between Russia and Ukraine. I was inspired by her clear and poignant writing, and it also put into words some of the emotions I am feeling about this: as someone with family and historical connections to both Russia and Ukraine, similar things happened in my family in the past, and setting these texts to music is simply a continuation of expressing the many emotions I have surrounding this history repeating itself. This movement is a lullaby (the title of which is taken from the poem itself), for a child being rocked to sleep as war rages all around. The repeated figure of three eighth notes, heard throughout the piece, signifies the rocking the child to sleep, and unsettling harmonies surround this to create a calm but unsettling atmosphere.
Text (with an English translation by the composer):
вот рецепт простого счастя:
круглая щека
с вытекающей из пасти
каплей молока.
птичий глаз, прикрытый веком
без ресниц пока,
то, что станет человеком
скоро из зверька
словно кистю красит шкафчик
золотой закат
спи, мой маленький тушканчик,
белка, сурикат
спи, пушистая макушка,
круглая спина,
спи, любимая зверушка.
а кругом война.
--
here’s a recipe for happiness:
a rounded cheek
spilling, from your mouth,
drops of milk.
little bird’s eye, covered with eyelids
that still have no eyelashes,
that, which will become a person
soon, from a creature.
as if painting a golden sunset
on the cabinet with your wrist,
sleep, my little gerbil,
my squirrel, my meerkat…
sleep, you, with the fluffy head
and the curved back,
sleep, my loving little creature.
and around us - is war.