other translations - Geter
Geter: Cantata for a More Hopeful Tomorrow
Damien Geter
I. FEAR
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen
J.S. Bach - BWV 12 – Text by Salomo Franck & Megan Levad
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen,
Weeping, lamentation, worry, despair,
Angst und Not
Fear and need
Sind der Christen Tränenbrot,
Are the Christian’s bread of tears,
Die das Zeichen Jesu tragen.
Who carry the sign of Jesus.
First we sought to tame the fire, the flood,
the mountain and its bear.
We worshipped where we walked,
and praised each day.
We learned: look everywhere
for danger –
poison berry, poison charm;
sudden precipice. The stranger.
For we are born to trouble,
we are built for trouble.
We seek, we seek,
we seek and reach.
All our cares become shadows
on a long day.
All our cares become sorrows
as the sparks fly.
We seek to tame the fire, the flood,
the mountain and its bear,
the poison, the precipice. The stranger.
Look everywhere: the deepest stars,
your innermost,
the farthest cry,
the closest breath.
All our cares become sorrows
as the sparks fly.
All our cares become shadows
on a long day.
For we are born to trouble,
for we are made for trouble –
we are made to seek,
and try, and dream.
II. THE PRAYER
I Want Jesus to Walk with Me – Traditional African American Spiritual
I want Jesus to walk with me.
All along my pilgrim journey,
Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
In my trials, Lord, please walk with me.
When my heart is almost breaking,
Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
III. BREATHE
Text by Aminata Sei
With effortless, simple repetitions,
No complex expectations shrouded by worry,
No disappointments imagined,
Just breathe.
Then interruptions,
Devastations leaving the world feeling sorry,
Questions, uncertainty emerge,
Now we don’t know how to breathe.
Standing in confidence of our decisions.
Shaken, with little hope to carry,
Movement halted, emotions stirred,
We must continue to breathe.
Go back to the parts of you that house ambitions.
Where you’ll find your glory,
The drive to endure.
Learn again to just breathe.
IV. THE RESOLVE
There’s a Balm in Gilead/By and By – Traditional African American Spirituals
There is a balm in Gilead,
To make the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead,
To heal the sin-sick soul.
Sometimes I feel discouraged,
And think my work’s in vain.
But then the Holy Spirit,
Revives my soul again.
There is a balm in Gilead,
To make the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead,
To heal the sin-sick soul.
Don’t ever feel discouraged.
Just lean on your friend.
And if you lack for knowledge,
They’ll never refuse to lend.
There is a balm in Gilead,
To make the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead,
To heal the sin-sick soul.
By and by, when the morning comes.
All of us are here together as one.
And we will tell the story of how we’ve overcome.
And we will understand it better by and by.
There is a balm in Gilead.
V. HOPE
“Continuities” – Text by Walt Whitman
[From a talk I had lately with a German spiritualist.]
Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, / No
birth, identity, form—no object of the world. / Nor
life, nor force, nor any visible thing; / Appearance
must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
/ Ample are time and space—ample the fields
of Nature. / The body, sluggish, aged, cold—the
embers left from earlier fires, / The light in the
eye grown dim, shall duly flame again; / The sun
now low in the west rises for mornings and for
noons continual; / To frozen clods ever the spring’s
invisible law returns, / With grass and flowers and
summer fruits and corn.
"Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" Salomo Franck & Megan Levad (mov't. 1); "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me" – Traditional African American Spiritual (mov't 2); Aminata Sei (mov't. 3); "There’s a Balm in Gilead"/"By and By" – Traditional African American Spirituals (mov't. 4); Walt Whitman (mov't. 5)