The Russian Salon program was presented in October 2011. This is an excerpt from a live performance given at Ivy Hall, with mezzo-soprano Tatyana Rashkovsky and pianist Katarzyna Marzec-Salwinski performing Russian romance song by Alexandr Borodin “For The Shores of Your Far Homeland”.

Video: William Lehan & Celeste Hardester.

English Translation (by R.R.R):

Back to distant shores of thine own,
From an alien land thou wert going away.
Long, before thee, I did bitterly mourn
On that unforgettable, sorrowful day.
My cold hands tried again and again,
Not to let thee go, and fast to me enfold.
And the parting’s terrible pain,
Not to abate, my sighs cajoled.
But thou brokest off our bitter kiss,
And thine own lips thou torest away:
From my dark exile to a land of bliss
Thou invited me to wend my way.
Thou promised: “the day when we meet,
Beneath the skies that are forever blue,
Under olive-trees, in love’s kisses sweet,
We’ll join, my friend, our lips anew.”
But there, alas! Where the sky
Is a radiant blue, with a luster so deep,
Where shadows of olive-trees on waters lie,
Thou art resting in eternal sleep.
All thy loveliness, thy sorrows,
Have vanished into the sepulchral urn —
And along with them – the promised kiss…
But I wait for that; thou must return…