Ukraine’s Zhenya Lopatnik, performs her iconic musical setting of Avram Sutzkever’s Yiddish poem “Ver Vet Blaybn” (Who Will Remain), with accordionist Alan Bern and violinist Mark Kovnatskiy.
Recorded September 3, 2016 in the Lakeside Terrace at Harbourfront Centre during the 11th Ashkenaz Festival.

Lyrics: A. Sutzkever 1974; Music: Zh. Lopatnik 2005 (?)

ver vet blaybn? vos v et blaybn? blaybn vet a vint,
blaybn vet di blindkeyt funem blindn, vos farshvindt.
blaybn vet a simen funem yam: a shnirl shoym,
blaybn vet a volkndl fartshepet oyf a boym.

ver vet blaybn? vos vet blaybn? blaybn vet a traf,
breyshesdik aroystsugrozn vider zayn bashaf.
blaybn vet a fidlroyz lekoved zikh aleyn,
zibn grozn fun di grozn veln zi farshteyn.

mer fun ale shtern azh fun tsofn biz aher,
blaybn vet der shtern, vos er falt in same trer.
shtendik vet a tropn vayn oykh blaybn in zayn krug.
ver vet blaybn, got vet blaybn, iz dir nit genug?

Translated by Michael Steinlauf (2009)

Who will last? And what will last?
A breeze, a blind man’s blindness when he’s passed,
sea-sign, strand of foam, a cloud caught up on its way home.

Who will last? And what will last?
A single sound, creation-grassed, greening and unbound.
A fiddle rose stands tall.
Seven grasses of the grasses will understand it all.

More than all the stars North-strewn down to here,
a star will last that falls into nothing but a tear.
In its jug a drop of wine stands true.
Who will last? God will last. Not enough for you?