Video: D. Zisl Slepovitch – איך האָב געזען “Ikh hob gezen (I Saw)”
from the vocal cycle “SYLL-ABLE – Soviet Yiddish Literati” (2017).
World and American Premiere of Orchestration by Zisl Slepovitch

October 29, 2021 was the Night of the Murdered Poets (Ноч растраляных паэтаў), the night of the executed Belarusian literature. On October 29, 1937 NKVD (Soviet secret police) executed a group of prominent Belarusian authors, among them two great Yiddish poets, Meyshe Kulbak and Izi Kharik. Sharing a song from my cycle SYLL-ABLE (Soviet Yiddish Literati) set to The Poem איך האָב געזען “Ikh hob gezen” (“I Saw”) by Zelik Akselrod (1940). Akselrod who witnessed the massacre of his friends and colleagues, was arrested and executed in the early 1941. He kept pushing for the development of Yiddish literature in the Soviet Union, not having fully realized that the game was over. This poem is his longing for and final farewell to “a friend” (or friends) and to the world. Recorded at Barbès Brooklyn, New York, on October 18, 2021.

Translation of “Ikh hob gezen – I Saw” by Zelik Akselrod.Translation by Shane Baker.
I saw the sun set,
at first like an apple, red,
then it became like a half an apple,
A moment later––foam on the ground.
There’s such a beauty in that
when the sun goes down behind the black sea.
You look at the horizon
because it reminds you of a friend.
The red stripe, the cool shine,
from grapes a clear wine,
as one sits down together, full glasses in hand.
But your friend is not here,
it’s a great black sea,
with waters rocking back and forth, the great wave now silent ––
the world is ever thus:
what you have and what you don’t.
––1940

Dr. D. Zisl Slepovitch, a native of Minsk, Belarus, is an ethnomusicologist (Ph.D.), klezmer, classical, and improvising woodwind and keyboard player; conductor, composer, educator, founding member of critically acclaimed bands Litvakus, Zisl Slepovitch Trio, and Zisl Slepovitch Ensemble. Dr. D. Zisl Slepovitch is the musician in residence at Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University. Slepovitch’s theatre, film, and television work includes multiple productions by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (off-Broadway), Rejoice (dubbed “Eternal Echoes” CD, Sony Classical) with Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot (PBS, Sony Classical), Defiance movie, and many others. Dr. Slepovitch has taught Yiddish language and culture at The New School, has been a guest artist and visiting lecturer at many universities and cultural organizations worldwide. 

Ivan Filipchyk is a New York-based artist and musician. He graduated from the Russian Gnessin Academy of music in Moscow with a Master’s degree in music. As a musician (accordion, piano) he participated in various competitions and gave concerts performing (as a soloist and participant in an ensemble) on the stages of Russia, Japan, USA, and Canada. Ivan is actively combining music (as a teacher, performer, and composer) with painting. 

For further information email: dslepovitch@gmail.com