Length: 11'45"

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Composition Date: 2001

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Commissioned: Da Camera Singers, conductor Ardelle Ries

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Text by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

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A la esparanza

Verde embeleso de la vida humana,

loca esperanza, frenesi dorado,

sueno de los despiertos, intricado,

como de suenos, de tesoros vana.

 

Alma del mundo, senectud lozana,

decrepito verdor imaginado;

el hoy de los dichosos esperado

y de los desdichados el manana:

 

sigan tu sombra en busca de tu dia

los que, converdes vidrios por anteojos,

todo lo ven pintado a su deseo;

que yo, mas cuerda en la fortuna mia,

tengo en entrambas manos ambos ojos

y solamente lo que toco veo.

 

To Hope

A green beguilement in our natural life,

mad hope and frenzy wrapped about with gold,

a dream by those awake, yet thinly cold

like dreams and treasures rife, with illusions.

 

Soul of the world, exuberant old age,

decrepit greenness of pure fantasy,

decrepit greenness of pure fantasy,

the now for which the happy ones rampage,

the future where the miserable would be.

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Clutching your name, seeking your day as real,

they stick green lenses in their glasses, and

the world they see is painted by command.

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But I, much saner in my state of mind,

keep both eyes focused on my hands. Not blind,

I only see what I can touch and feel.

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Score Excerpt