Mark Silver’s Mit oygn farmakhte (With Closed Eyes) is a careful setting of Avraham Reisen’s poem, in which two lovers cannot refrain from recalling their earlier first lovers—even when they are together in a lover’s embrace (“with closed eyes”). At least for one of the two, however, this makes for a “double joy.”
Poem: Avraham Reisen
Sung in Yiddish
I kiss you with closed eyes
And feel a double joy:
With closed eyes I can see
My first love again!
And when I open my eyes
I see that yours too are closed.…
The same thing has happened to you:
You too have thought of your first love.…
Poem: Avraham Reisen
ikh kush dikh mit oygn farmakhte
un fil vi a dopltn glik:
mit oygn farmakhte derze
ikh di libe di ershte tsurik!
un efn ikh uf mayne oygn
derze ikh oykh dayne farmakht….
mit dir iz dos zelbe geshen:
oykh du host fun ershtn getrakht….
Performers: Re'ut Ben-Ze'ev, Soprano; John Musto, Piano
Translation: Eliyahu Mishulovin
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