The Stranger

The Stranger (2021)
Music: Kim André Arnesen (b. 1980)

The Arlington Chorale
Dr. Ingrid Lestrud, Artistic Director
Melanie Ashkar, mezzo-soprano

March 16, 2024

Part I: The Plight of the Stranger
00:00 1. Things we carry
06:53 2. Reflection (Instrumental)
Negin Khpalwak, guest conductor; Ahmad Bahir Nasiri, poet
10:39 3. I was hungry
Part II: We are all strangers somewhere
14:07 4. The stranger who resides with you
16:32 5. Some are black and some are white
20:22 6. You first saw them by the roadside
25:42 7. Love should be felt
29:25 8. Look again and you will see
33:41 9. Love and good faith
34:46 10. Call no-one stranger
40:49 11. Do not neglect
43:55 12. Say it loud, say it clear
Part III: We journey together in hope
48:02 Ibrahim Hakim, Recitation from The Qur'an, An-Nisa 4:36 (translated by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem)
50:24 13. Love, peace, hope
57:24 14. The guest is as God
59:30 15. Welcome!
01:06:15 16. Let us build a house


You can view the program from this performance here: https://www.arlingtonchorale.org/uplo...

Translation of poem:
Kabul has grown to accept darkness
That clear sky,
that hot sun
no longer exit
It has turned into hell, this majestic Kabul
Pure friendships
Hard working men
They exist no more
As if no one has ever read any poetry in this town
The great Kabul is weathered
That you can’t tell it apart from an old village
Such is its reality
The water, bread, and this soil is what life is here
The life itself is a mere excuse
There are but few tales to tell in every corner of this city
Tales of water, bread, and soil
Of laughter that has been massacred
And of sleeping dead
Yet no one said what comfort is
Comfort and leisure
Reside only in our thoughts
This life is not entirely impossible though
This grand city (Kabul) is not but the countryside
In the eye of the beholder
The soil is no more
Greenery has not existed
During the harvest season
The young are cold and silent
With bent back from the burden of life
Just like the branch that bends over
And the leaves that get stepped on
Because it obeys the nature’s merciless laws
Indeed, do not read its lips
Read its teary eyes
As it tells you tales of punches it has suffered
Rise! The young
The wounded lions
Listen to the sound of Qur’an
Or the hundreds of martyrs of this land
Listen to how they have performed their prophecy
Rise and scream
Read a chapter from your pain
This is not the time to be silent nor regret
This is what the tick tock of clock is whispering to us these days.
Ahmad Bahir Nasiri, poet
Translated from Farsi by Salima Kabir