Lyrics adapted by Frank DiGiacomo from the play by S. Ansky. Based on THE DYBBUK, translation © 1974 by S. Morris Engel, published by Nash Publishing Corporation, New York.

Laia voices her unhappiness about her forthcoming marriage, and thinks about another couple killed many years before on their way to their own wedding, for whom a monument stands before the synagogue. She kneels before the “Holy Grave”, declaring that they are happier than she, since they are united forever, while she goes to a joyless marriage with a stranger. Finally, she declares her intention of inviting their souls to her wedding (and in so doing proclaims her desire to invite Khannon’s spirit as well), saying she will dance with the souls of the dead upon their graves. All of this is voiced in the long and taxing scene of Laia’s Monologue, at the end of which she collapses weeping over the grave.

(Act Two closes with the marriage ceremony of Laia and Menashe, during which Laia suffers a nervous collapse; and calling upon the spirits of the dead to help her, she is possessed by the soul of Khannon, now a “dybbuk”, a soul seeking its salvation by possessing the body of a living person, to the horror of the assembled wedding party.)

The recording is of a performance by Mayda Prado, accompanied by the Composer, at the recital An Evening of New Music by Frank DiGiacomo, on May 18, 1977 at the Carrier Theater of the Mulroy Civic Center in Syracuse, New York.

LYRICS
(LAIA is left alone, except for the MESSENGER, whom she does not notice, standing near the grave.)

LAIA:
    We shall go to my mother.
    She died young, and had no chance
    to live through all that she should have.
    She has called me, called me by name,

    as long as I can remember.
    As a child I heard her sweet voice call,
    “Laia! Laialeh, my own, my child,”
    and I wept and wept, and I answered her,
    but she could not hold me,
    could not comfort me in my loneliness.
    She had gone, and only her voice
    was left to me.
    That is why I shall go now to the graveyard,
    there to invite her to my wedding feast.
    She shalll join my father
    when he leads me to the canopy
    and she shalll come and take my hand
    and join me in the dance.
    I shall know she is there with us,
    as you are all here now, unhappy souls, gone from us.
    I’ve known this Holy Grave since I was a child;
    I know its inscription in my heart:
    “Here lie a pure and holy bride and groom,
    murdered together to the glory of God
    in the year five thousand four hundred and eight.
    May their souls be bound to the living, for ever, for ever more.”
    I know you both buried here, I know you well.
    I have seen you in my dreams so many times
    and I have loved you as if you were my own family.
    I have seen you both so young and beautiful,
    as you walked to the canopy hand in hand.
    Before you lay a long life,
    a happy and beautiful life,
    with its joys, its trials, and the children
    which would bear witness for all eternity
    to your love for each other.
    I have seen all that,
    and I have seen the axes of murderous evil men,
    which cut short those lives, ended all hopes,
    as you walked that day to your wedding canopy.
    Oh, I have shed so many tears for your fate.
    But now I feel you have more joy than I,
    for all I feel is sorrow heavy in my heart.
    Death has parted me from many I have loved,
    and my thoughts dwell on those who have left me.
    You both shall never more be parted, you see —
    Death can smile and be kind; but not for me.
    “May their souls be bound to the living forever,  forever more! ”
    I wish to bind myself to you all,
    I shall never forget you!
    Never!

    Now I shall dance around your graves!
    and I shall call your names, and you shall rise up
    and join the dance of the living!
    I do not understand why I am weighed down;
    sad yearning fills my heart —
    but I look to you to find the answer,
    my only friends...my only friends!
    Come take my hand and join with me,
    the dance of the living.
    You shall take my hand,
    and follow my steps to the sound of the music!
    Holy Bride and Groom, hear me now!
    I invite you both to come to my wedding!
    Come!  Stand near me!
    Join me, protect me, stay close beside me under my canopy.
    Speak the Holy Words you never spoke!
    Know the feelings bursting within me which I cannot say!
    Come! Join my wedding dance!
    Come!

(LAIA hysterically throws herself on the Holy Grave, embracing the ancient stone.)