PART I

CHORUS

The world turns on its dark side.

It is winter.

The Argument

ALTO

Man has measured the heavens

with a telescope,

driven the gods from their thrones.

But the soul,

watching the chaotic mirror,

knows that the gods return.

Truly, the living god consumes

within and turns the flesh to cancer.

Scene

CHORUS

Is evil then good?

Is reason untrue?

ALTO

Reason is true to itself;

But pity breaks open the heart.

CHORUS

We are lost.

We are as seed before the wind.

We are carried

to a great slaughter.

BASS (Narrator)

Now in each nation

there were some cast out

by authority and tormented,

made to suffer for the general wrong.

Pogroms in the east,

lynching in the west;

Europe brooding

on a war of starvation,

And a great cry went up from the people.

CHORUS OF THE OPPRESSED

When shall the usurers city cease,

And famine depart from the fruitful land?

TENOR

I have no money for my bread;

I have no gift for my love.

I am caught between

my desires and their frustration

as between the hammer and the anvil.

How can I grow

to a man stature?

SOPRANO

How can I cherish my man

in such days,

or become a mother

in a world of destruction?

How shall I feed my children

on so small a wage?

How can I comfort them when I am dead?

A Spiritual

CHORUS & SOLOISTS

Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus;

Steal away, steal away home

I ain't got long to stay here.

My Lord, He calls me,

He calls me by the thunder,

The trumpet sounds within-a my soul,

I ain't got long to stay here.

Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus;

Steal away, steal away home

I ain't got long to stay here.

Green trees a-bending,

poor sinner stand a-trembling,

The trumpet sounds within-a my soul,

I ain't got long to stay here.

Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus;

Steal away, steal away home

I ain't got long to stay here.

PART II

CHORUS

A star rises in mid-winter.

Behold the man!

The scapegoat!

The child of our time.

BASS (The Narrator)

And a time came

when in the continual persecution

one race stood for all.

DOUBLE CHORUS

PERSECUTORS, PERSECUTED

Away with them!

Curse them! Kill them!

They infect the state.

Where? How? Why?

We have no refuge.

BASS (The Narrator)

Where they could,

they fled from the terror,

And among them a boy escaped secretly, and was kept in hiding in a great city.

CHORUS OF THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS

We cannot have them in our Empire.

They shall not work,

nor beg a dole.

Let them starve

in No-Mans-Land!

BASS (The Narrator)

And the boys mother

wrote a letter, saying:

Scene

MOTHER (Soprano)

Oh my son! In the dread terror

they have brought me near to death.

BOY (Tenor)

Mother! Mother!

Though men hunt me like an animal,

I will defy the world to reach you.

AUNT (Alto)

Have patience.

Throw not your life away in futile sacrifice.

UNCLE (Bass)

You are as one against all.

Accept the impotence

of your humanity.

BOY (Tenor)

No! I must save her.

A Spiritual

CHORUS & SOLOISTS

Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord,

Nobody knows like Jesus.

Oh brothers, pray for me,

And help me to drive

Old Satan away.

Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord,

Nobody knows like Jesus.

Oh mothers, pray for me,

And help me to drive

Old Satan away.

Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord,

Nobody knows like Jesus.

Scene

BASS (The Narrator)

The boy becomes desperate in his agony.

ALTO

A curse is born.

The dark forces threaten him.

BASS (The Narrator)

He goes to authority.

He is met with hostility.

ALTO

His other self rises in him,

demonic and destructive.

BASS (The Narrator)

He shoots the official—

ALTO

But he shoots only his dark brother—

And see—

he is dead.

BASS (The Narrator)

They took a terrible vengeance.

The Terror

CHORUS

Burn down their homes!

Beat in their heads!

Break them in pieces on the wheel!

BASS (The Narrator)

Men were ashamed

of what was done.

There was bitterness and horror.

A Spiritual of anger

CHORUS & BASS

Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land;

Tell old Pharaoh,

to let my people go.

When Israel was in Egypt's land,

Let my people go.

Oppressed so hard they could not stand,

Let my people go.

“Thus spake the Lord”,

bold Moses said,

Let my people go.

"If not, I'll smite your first-born dead”,

Let my people go.

Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land;

Tell old Pharaoh,

to let my people go.

The boy sings in his Prison

BOY (Tenor)

My dreams are all shattered

in a ghastly reality.

The wild beating of my heart

is stilled: day by day.

Earth and sky are not

for those in prison.

Mother! Mother!

MOTHER (Soprano)

What have I done to you, my son?

What will become of us now?

The springs of hope are dried up.

My heart aches in unending pain.

ALTO

The dark forces rise like a flood.

Men's hearts are heavy:

they cry for peace.

A Spiritual

CHORUS & SOPRANO

Oh, by and by, by and by,

I'm going to lay down my heavy load.

I know my robe's going to fit me well,

I tried it on at the gates of hell.

Oh, hell is deep and a dark despair,

Oh, stop, poor sinner, and don t go there!

Oh, by and by, by and by,

I'm going to lay down my heavy load.

PART III

CHORUS

The cold deepens.

The world descends

into the icy waters

where lies the jewel of great price.

ALTO

The soul of man

is impassioned like a woman.

She is old as the earth,

beyond good and evil,

the sensual garments.

Her face will be illumined like the sun.

Then is the time of his deliverance.

Scene

BASS

The words of wisdom are these:

Winter cold means inner warmth,

the secret nursery of the seed.

CHORUS

How shall we have patience

for the consummation of the mystery?

Who will comfort us

in the going through?

BASS

Patience is born

in the tension of loneliness.

The garden lies beyond the desert.

CHORUS

Is the man of destiny master of us all?

Shall those cast out be unavenged?

BASS

The man of destiny

is cut off from fellowship.

Healing springs from the womb of time.

The simple-hearted shall exult in the end.

CHORUS

What of the boy, then?

What of him?

He, too, is outcast,

his manhood broken

in the clash of powers.

God overpowered him—

the child of our time.

GENERAL ENSEMBLE

TENOR

I would know

my shadow and my light,

so shall I at last be whole.

BASS

Then courage, brother,

dare the grave passage.

SOPRANO

Here is no final grieving,

but an abiding hope.

ALTO

The moving waters renew the earth.

It is spring.

(Chorus repeats the words

of the soloists)

A Spiritual

CHORUS & SOLOISTS

Deep river,

my home is over Jordan.

Deep river, Lord,

I want to cross over into camp-ground.

Oh chill! Oh don't you want to go,

To that gospel feast,

That promised land,

That land where all is peace?

Walk into heaven,

and take my seat,

And cast down my crown

at Jesus' feet.

Deep river,

my home is over Jordan,

I want to cross over into camp-ground,

Lord!

PARTE I

CORO

El mundo gira sobre su lado oscuro.

Es invierno.

EL Argumento

CONTRALTO

El Hombre ha medido los cielos

con un telescopio,

y ha echado a los dioses de sus tronos.

Pero el alma,

mirándose en el espejo del caos,

sabe que los dioses regresarán.

¡Mas, un dios viviente consume

el interior y muda la carne en cáncer!

Escena

CORO

¿Es la maldad buena?...

¿Es incierta la razón?...

CONTRALTO

La razón es cierta por sí misma;

pero la pena rompe y rasga el corazón.

CORO

Estamos perdidos.

Somos como semillas ante el viento.

Nos están arrastrando

a una gran masacre.

BAJO (Narrador)

Ahora, en cada nación,

algunos son expulsados por

las autoridades y los amargados,

sufriendo por el error general.

Progroms en el este,

linchamientos en el oeste;

Europa meditando tristemente

una guerra de desnutrición.

Y un gran grito se eleva de la multitud.

CORO DE LOS OPRIMIDOS

¿Se detendrán los usureros de la ciudad?

¿desaparecerá el hambre de la fértil tierra?

TENOR

No tengo dinero para comprar pan,

ni un regalo para mi amor.

Estoy atrapado

entre mis deseos y la frustración,

como entre el martillo y el yunque.

¿Cómo alcanzaré la estatura

de un hombre?

SOPRANO

¿Cómo podré cuidar a mi hombre

cada día,

o convertirme en madre

en un mundo de destrucción?

¿Cómo alimentaré a mis hijos

con tan magro jornal?

¿Cómo los confortaré cuando muera?

Espiritual

CORO, SOLISTAS

Escabúllete, escabúllete, hacia Jesús;

Escabúllete, escabúllete de tu casa.