the Maurer Poems (Neža Maurer)

Lago met the Lorenci/Mlacnik Duo at the Amsterdam Conservatorium when coaching them. They hit it off nicely right away, and after the duo performed the ‘Canciones Flamencas’ (for Sax&Stix, 2009) they asked Lago to write a piece for them for upcoming chamber music festivals.

Lago had just written the ‘Rimas’ on poems by Gustavo Bécquer and finding that a very inspiring period he decided to do something poetry-inspired again. He asked Janina and Lola to share their most beloved Slovenian poems (they both come from that country) and they came up with three wonderful poems by Neža Maurer-Škofič (1930) that became the base for the ‘Maurer Poems’.

(and Janina and Lola won first prizes and extra prizes in both competitions where they performed the Maurer Poems…)

Performance notes

In performance it is recommended to recite the text before each movement; either in Slovenian (preferred if possible) and/or translated.

Neža Maurer-Škofič (1930)

Ograje

Kdo si je drznil postaviti ograje,
zbiti plotove,
razmejiti naše in vaše,
moje in tvoje?

Begamo sredi lastnega nesmisla,
omejeni v zamejenem prostoru
iščemo drug drugega.
Izgubljamo sebe.

Ograje pa kar rastejo više in više.

Fences

Who dared to put up fences,
put together wooden fences,
delineate ours and yours,
mine and yours?

We wander in the midst of our own nonsense.
Limited in a limited space
we look for each other.
Loosing ourselves.

The fences keep rising higher and higher.

V ozadju

Ti si v ozadju.
Barve pripadajo tistim,
ki so spredaj.

Vseeno,
ali so dobri ali ne,
ali so lepi ali grdi,
ali jih sploh zaslužijo.

Barve so zanje.

In the background

You are in the background.
Colors belong to those,
who are in the foreground.

Doesn’t matter,
if they are good or not,
if they are beautiful or ugly,
if they even deserve it.

Colors are for them.

Igram za vse

Igram za vse kar imam.
Sprejemam vsakršna pravila igre,
plačam vsakršno ceno
za tisto, kar ljubim.

Če izgubim, pojdem po svetu kot desetnica.
Šla bom
in gredoč pela o svoji ljubezni. 

I play for all

I play for all I have.

I accept any rules of the game,
pay any price
for what I love.

If I lose,
I’ll roam the world like a repudiated daughter,
I’ll hit the road,
and, on the way, sing about my love.