Mi vida entera
Franz Nicolay
About this work:
Setting of a poem by Borges. Also available for chamber ensemble; see that version for a recording. Reprinted without permission and written for Susan Oetgen & Francisco Roldan. Premiered by Susan, Francisco, and Dan Neustadt at CAMI Hall in 9/02. If you’re a guy just take it down an octave.
Mi vida entera
Aquí otra vez, los labios memorables, único y semejante a vosotros.
He persistido en la aproximación de la dicha y en la intimidad de la pena.
He atravesado el mar.
He conocido muchas tierras; he visto una mujer y dos o tres hombres.
He querido a una niña altiva y blanca y de una hispánica quietud.
He visto un arrabal infinito donde se cumple una insaciada inmortalidad de ponientes.
He paladeado numerosas palabras.
Creo profundamente que eso es todo y que ni veré ni ejecutaré cosas nuevas.
Creo que mis jornadas y mis noches se igualan en pobreza y en riqueza a las de Dios y a las de todos los hombres.
My whole life
Here once again the memorable lips, unique and like yours.
I kept getting close to happiness and have stood in the shadow of suffering.
I have crossed the sea.
I have known many lands; I have seen one woman and two or three men.
I have loved a girl who was fair and proud, with a Spanish quietness.
I have seen the city’s edge, an endless sprawl where the sun goes down tirelessly, over and over.
I have relished many words.
I believe deeply that this is all and that I will neither see nor accomplish new things.
I believe that my days and nights in the their poverty and their riches are the equal of God’s and of all men’s.
- Jorge Luis Borges, trans. W.S. Merwin
Version: voice, gtr, pno
Year composed: 2002
Duration: 00:04:00
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Voice with Chamber/Jazz Ensemble, 2-5 Players
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Guitar (Classical/Acoustic), 1 Soprano