Texts and Translations: Chris Thile and John Holiday

The Minnesota Orchestra's 2026 Summer at Orchestra Hall season comes to a close with two weekends of concerts, Chris Thile with the Minnesota Orchestra on July 31 and August 1, and a pair of programs featuring countertenor John Holiday: John Holiday and Beethoven's Fifth on August 7 and An American Songbook with John Holiday and the Minnesota Orchestra on August 8.

Each concert features Thile or Holiday as a vocal soloist in a variety of repertoire: Thile in Caroline Shaw's And So and Thile's own autobiographical song cycle ATTENTION! (July 31-August 1), and Holiday in Carlos Simon's Songs of Separation and a pair of songs by Reynaldo Hahn (August 7) and a variety of selections from the American Songbook (August 8).

Following are texts and translations for the July 31-August 1 and August 7 programs: the Caroline Shaw And So text, a link to the Chris Thile ATTENTION! text, the Carlos Simon Songs of Separation text, and the Reynaldo Hahn songs' French texts and English translations.

Chris Thile with the Minnesota Orchestra (Jul 31-Aug 1): Caroline Shaw and Chris Thile texts

Caroline Shaw: And So

Would a song by any other name 
Sound as sweet and true?
Would all the reds be just the same 
Or violets as blue?
If you were gone 
Would words still flow 
And would they rhyme with you?

If you were gone 
Would I still know 
How to love, and how to grow 
And how the vowel threads through?

And so you say the saying goes 
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose 
Is a rose is a rose is a tired rhyme
But in the verse there's always time

Would scansion cease to mark the beats if I went away?
Would a syllable interrupt the feet with tetrametric iambs when I am gone?
Listen and I will sing a tune of love and life and of the ocean's prose 
And the poetry of a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June

And so you say the saying goes, 
A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose 
Is a rose is a rose is how I'm 
Keeping track of time

When the seas rise high, my dear 
And the rocks melt with the sun
Will the memory of us 
Still rhyme with anyone?
Will we still tune our violins?
Will we still sing of roses?
Will we exist at all, my love
Or will we fade to stanzas of the dust 
That I suppose is all we were and all we'll be?

And so, the saying, "So it goes" 
Depends a lot on if a rose
Is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose 
Is a rose is a rose is a thing sublime
And so we stay, on borrowed time

Text by Caroline Shaw

Chris Thile: ATTENTION!

The text for Chris Thile's ATTENTION! appears on Thile's website. 

John Holiday and Beethoven's Fifth (Aug 7): Texts and Translations

Carlos Simon: Songs of Separation

I. The Garden‍

Your Grief can be the garden of compassion.
If you keep your heart open through everything,
your pain can become your ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.
But listen to me:
for one moment, quit being sad.
Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.
What hurts you, blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.‍

II. Burning Hell

I plant some flowers without you –
They become thorns.
I see a peacock — it
turns into a snake.
I play the harp — nothing but noise.
I go to the highest heaven — it’s a
burning hell.‍

III. Dance

Dance, when you’re broken.
Dance, if you’re torn.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you’re perfectly free.
Life is ending? God gives another.
Admit the finite. Praise the Infinite!
Love is a spring — submerged!
Every separate drop, a whole new life.

IV. We Are All the Same

Listen to the reeds as they sway apart;
Hear them speak of lost friends.
At birth, you were cut from your bed,
Crying and grasping in separation.
Everyone listens, knowing your song.
You yearn for others who know your name,
And the words to your lament.
We are all the same, all the same,
Longing to find our way back;
Back to the one, back to the only one.

Text by Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī
Translation by Coleman Barks

Reynaldo Hahn: À Chloris (To Chloris)

S'il est vrai, Chloris, que tu m'aimes,
Mais j'entends, que tu m'aimes bien,
Je ne crois pas que les rois mêmes
Aient un bonheur pareil au mien.
Que la mort serait importune
à venir changer ma fortune
Pour la félicité des cieux!
Tout ce qu'on dit de l'ambroisie
Ne touche point ma fantaisie
Au prix des grâces de tes yeux.

If it is true, Chloris, that you love me,
And I understand that you love me well,
I do not believe that even kings
Could have a happiness equal to mine.
How death would be unwelcome,
If it were to exchange my present state
For the joy of heaven!
All that they say of ambrosia
Does not inspire my imagination
Like the favor of your eyes.

Text by Théophile de Viau (1590-1626)
Translation (c) 2008 by Bard Suverkrop – IPA Source, LLC

Reynaldo Hahn: L’énamourée (Enamored One)

Ils se disent, ma colombe,
Que tu rêves, morte encore,
Sous la pierre d'une tombe :
Mais pour l'âme qui t'adore,
Tu t'éveilles réanimée,
Ô pensive bien-aimée!

They say, my dove
That, although you are dead, you still dream
Beneath the headstone of a grave:
But for the soul which adores you,
You awaken reanimated.
Oh thoughtful beloved!

Par les blanches nuits d'étoiles,
Dans la brise qui murmure,
Je caresse tes longs voiles,
Ta mouvante chevelure,
Et tes ailes demi-closes
Qui voltigent sur les roses!

Through the sleepless star filled night,
In the breeze which murmurs,
I caress your long veils,
Your flowing hair
And your wings half-closed
Which flutter among the roses.

Ô délices! je respire
Tes divines tresses blondes!
Ta voix pure, cette lyre,
Suit la vague sur les ondes,
Et, suave, les effleure,
Comme un cygne qui se pleure!

Oh delights! I breathe in
Your divine blond tresses!
Your pure voice, this lyre,
Follows the swell across the waters
And softly touches them,
Like a weeping swan!

Text by Théodore Faullin de Banville (1823-1891)
Translation (c) 2007 by Bard Suverkrop – IPA Source, LLC