Instrumentation: Tenor and string quartet
Duration: 7:00 min
Commissioned by: Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto (ICOT)
Poem by: Sohrab Sepehri
Composition date: 2012
World Premiere: September 8th, 2012 at St. George Church in Toronto performed by Ton Bou String Quartet and Hassan Anami (tenor)
Program notes:
Aab which means Water in farsi is set to a poem by the great 20th century Persian poet, Sohrab Sepehry. He uses a new poetry language known as “modern poetry” in Iran that differs from the popular classics such as Rumi and Hafez. The song is inspired by the sound of water and streams. It’s a humanistic poem about empathy and how to treat each others as humans.
Water
By Sohrab Sepehri
Translated from Persian by Jerome W. ClintonLet’s not muddy the water.
Imagine that close by a dove
is drinking from it,
or in a distant grove a finch
is washing its wings in it,
or in some village it fills a storage jar.Let’s not muddy the water.
Perhaps this flowing stream runs
by the foot of a poplar tree
and eases some heart’s grief.
A dervish, perhaps,
has moistened his crust in it.A young woman stood on its bank—
the water doubled her beauty.
Let’s not muddy the water.How delicious this water is!
How refreshing this stream!
Those people who live upstream,
how fortunate they are!
May their springs be ever fresh,
their cows always fertile!
I haven’t seen their village,
But surely, God’s foot is on
their threshing floor and
the moonlight there illuminates
the width of their words.
The walls are low in the village upstream.
Blue there is really blue.
When buds blossom, they know, those people.
What a village it must be!
May its streets be filled with music!Those people by the stream
https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2007-07/water1/
Have left it clear.
Let’s not muddy the water.
