Songs for Earth Day – Saturday 22nd April, 7pm – Holy Trinity Church, Whitecross, Hereford
In this concert celebrating Earth Day 2023, my Stone Study No.3 ‘Black Honey’ for solo piano will be performed by Jelena Makarova, as well as the premiere of my Japanese Death Poems (Book Two) by Jessica Summers (soprano) and Jelena.
Stone Study No.3 ‘Black Honey’ was inspired by Alan Garner’s 2017 essay Flint (part of Radio 3’s Cornerstones), and features a series of low chords with shifting densities, split by two “strikes”.
My second set of Japanese Death Poems was written for Jessica and Jelena, and is intended to explore themes surrounding climate change, and the gradual disappearance of wildlife.
Eight death poems (by haiku poets and zen monks) are arranged in two parts. The first part may be seen to represent the disappearance of life on earth, beginning with a desperate (but ultimately vain) plea for life to endure. The second part represents more of a farewell, exploring the transience of things, and concluding with the idea of nature enduring in the universe, regardless of the fate of the earth and humankind.
Translations by Yoel Hoffmann:
I.
KOSEKI
Chigirioku
matsu ya iku-tose
waka midori
Swear to me, pine,
for many years
to keep on young and green.
BASHO
Yagate shinu
keshiki wa miezu
semi no koe
No sign
in the cicada’s song
that it will soon be gone.
SOBOKU
Kono fuyu wa
makoto ni karuru
yanagi kana
This winter
the willow will freeze
for good.
KASENJO
Okusoko mo
shirenu samusa ya
umi no oto
Depths of cold
unfathomable
ocean roar.
II.
KIMPO
Miosame no
kyo to wa narinu
Fuji-no-yama
Today is the day
For one last view
of Mount Fuji.
HAMEI
Mi no hate wa
shari no hikari ya
hanagokoro
Man’s end,
a mound of gleaming bones:
a flowering and a fading.
ZAISHIKI
Kusa no shimo
toza bakari zo
shiranunari
Frost on grass:
a fleeting form
that is, and is not!
HAKUSETSU
Anjin wa
yamai ga ue no
gokusho kana
At peace,
above my sickness
summer smoulders.
