The Death of Klinghoffer: Prologue: Chorus of Exiled Jews Songtext
von John Adams

When I paid off the taxi
I had no money left
And, of course, no luggage
My empty hands shall signify this passion
Which itself remembers

O Daughter of Zion
When you lay upon my breast
I was like a soldier
Who lies beneath the earth of his homeland, resolved


You said:
"I am an old woman,
I thought you were dead.
I have forgotten how often
We betrayed one another.
My hide is worn thin,
Covered with scars and wrinkles.
Now only doctors gather at my bedside
To tell what the Almighty has prepared for me.
A woman comes in to keep the place looking occupied."

Let us, when our lust is exhausted for the day
Recount to each other all we endured since we parted
There is so much to get through
It will take until night
Then we shall rise, miraculously
Virgin, boy and bride

To me you are a land of Jerusalem stone
Your scars are holy places
There, under my hand, the last wall of the Temple
There, the Dome of the Rock
And many apartments
The forest planted in memory
The movie houses picketed by Hasidim
The military barracks
The orchard where a goat climbs among branches

Your neighbor, the one who let me in
She was brought up on stories of our love