Robert Severin

THE DOOR
Words by George Szirtes
Music by Robert Severin

How quickly the doors
of the past close behind you.
Are they firmly shut?

Do you have a key
to come and go with? Is there
no way to slip through

the window? You can see
the shadows of furniture
and figures moving

like ghosts to the door.
 

EVENSONG
Words by George Szirtes
Music by Robert Severin

Now the light goes out
but slowly, a child falling
asleep, the evening

entering a dream
that is not quite possible
and yet convincing.

Could this all be true?
These clouds? These birds closing down?
Where might they go next?

Should there be a night?
 

Night in Budapest

Words by George Szirtes

Music by Robert Severin

Night in Budapest
in a quiet district past
midnight. The sleepless

turn in silent beds,
listening to their own thoughts,
neighbours in courtyards

locked on to their lives.
Where would night be without them?
Where are the bright moons

of their faint breathing?

(Budapest, éjfél után)

Evenings, Midnights

Words by George Szirtes 

Music by Robert Severin

Those empty evenings
when time sits on its bare hands
and closes its mouth.

Those evenings waiting
for a midnight that never
arrives. Those evenings

when world holds its breath
hoping history turns up
with gifts of kindness

so long overdue.
 

George Szirtes is a Budapest born British poet, translator and author. He was recently awarded the King's Gold Medal for Poetry. Szirtes posted ‘Amber’ on his Facebook page last autumn. It inspired me to set it to music, something I've not attempted with poetry before, but I found it to be a most rewarding challenge.

Find out more about George Szirtes here.

AMBER
Words by George Szirtes
Music by Robert Severin

Under the desk-light
the world contracts to a bowl
of amber, a warm

wash of silence. Sheets
of paper form a pale bed
on which light may sleep.

Faint notes of winter
music creep through late autumn,
soft as fallen leaves,

sullen in amber.

A new, biographical novel about the Hungarian wartime diva and humanitarian, Katalin Karády, “Kata, the Rebel Diva”, by UK based Hungarian writer, translator, poet and film maker, Csilla Toldy, was launched at the Budapest International Book Festival in September, 2024, published by Open Books, Budapest.
Karády's story inspired one of my songs, "Time Heals (But the Healed Heart Still Hurts)", on my album "Postcard from Budapest". I got in touch with Csilla when I learned she was writing a book about the artist. She very kindly sent me a copy of her manuscript. We collaborated on a song inspired by one of the chapters, set in December 1944, when the singer was hiding from the nazis in her bomb damaged apartment. Karády had already endured three months of horrific abuse while in Gestapo custody and was still subject to police surveillance. Karády saw a group of twenty  children being marched to the Danube by the Arrow Cross militia. She promptly gathered what valuables she had left and followed them to the embankment. Karády bribed the men with her jewellery and saved the children from being shot into the river. She cared for the children until the end of the war. One of the children from that group became a journalist. His testimony to Yad Vashem  in 2004 resulted in Karády's posthumous award of 'Righteous Among the Nations'. All those that Karády had rescued sheltered during the Holocaust survived the war. 
You can listen to the demo of “Curtain Call”  here. The final version will feature Hungarian children's choir for the bridge section. 
Find out more about Csilla Toldy's work here. Hungarian readers can read the review by clicking on the adjacent article.

"Shameless Tango" came about from an experimental piece I played around with over twenty years ago using a Fostex 4 track cassette tape recorder, a couple of Zoom FX boxes and my '79 Stratocaster. I had also just seen David Lynch's "Eraserhead" for the first time, the sound design of which greatly influenced the sonic vibe. I came across a recording of a speech by Lenin which, thanks to the forensic research by The Empty Mirrors, turns out to be about the function of capitalism and those who benefit and lose from its perpetuation. The combination of the heavily effected speech and guitar was quite unsettling but thrilling at the same time. The Empty Mirrors capitalised on this to produce a lullaby for our times.

Cover art by Robert Severin

This in my latest collaboration with the Empty Mirrors, a reimagined classic by Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention.

You can find it on SoundCloud on Spotify and all digital platforms.