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Babinagar
Words and Music by Elliot Cole (2009)

1.  Father’s Song / Song of the Snake

I once had my very own daughter
She was a golden flower
Then one day
she went away
in clothes and shoes of iron.

I broke my back for a living
to give her an honest upbringing
my one mistake
was when that snake
Khastakhumar came singing:

Sure as sky,
sure as earth,
sure as death,
sure as birth,
sure as wells are full of water
I have come to woo your daughter fair

2.  Stepsister’s Song

When it comes, it hisses,
but behind her door he speaks.
All we see is black and small
but he is tall when my sister peeks.

It has no lips!  We’ve seen it
as it slithers through the dusty yard.
But once inside, without a hiss
we hear him kiss Babinagar.

Is he handsome?  Is he strong?
Why does he leave so early?
Is he Afghan like our mom,
or is he blonde and curly?

She won’t tell us anything,
though we her loving sisters are.
We are sick to death of silent
smiling Babinagar.

You must make him stay.
You must make him stay.
A good man would not leave you
every single day.

We are older, we are fair;
I sing and she can play the oud.
We expected to be married
long before our sister would.

For sisters we a sister had
but now this husband makes us four
and two of them a secret keep,
that serpent and Babinagar.

You must make him stay.
You must make him stay.
A good man would not leave you
every single day.

Wherever he may go all day,
I’m sure it is a woman.
Another family tucked away,
I hear that’s not uncommon.

Make a tea of garlic
onion skins and vinegar:
serve it him and you will win
a constant man, Babinagar.

3.  Lament

You
You don’t know what you’ve done.
You’ve done the forbidden thing,
and for this the snakes have won
and I must go be their king.

Oh husband no!
(I told you no)
Forgive me and do not go!
(no vinegar in my home)
I feared that you were not true
(no garlic or onion skins at all)
but I should have trusted you
(oh why did I trust in you)
Oh I should have trusted you

4.  The Challenge

I was honest when you married me
All I asked is that you trust in me
The spell can break
I’ll shed this skin
and we can be together then

I must go, or they will come for me
(I will follow)
but if you think that you can set me free
(Through sand and through snow)
I must share my curse with you
(I will bear your skin with you
say the thing that I must do!)

You must find:
7 sets of iron clothes
7 pairs of iron shoes
7 iron canes
and when you’ve worn them through

I’ll be there for you.

5.  Babinagar’s Promise

7 sets of iron clothes
7 pairs of iron shoes
7 iron canes is all I need to prove my love is true.
I’ll chase the setting sun and then
when I’ve worn them through
serpent spells are broken, Love I’m coming
I’m coming –
I’ll come running!

for sure as buckwheat
sure as rain
sure as Abel
cares for Cain
I fear neither weight nor distance
infinite is my insistence

6.  Round:  The Dowry Grows

The two become four and the four become eight
when the happy bull and the heifer mate.
Eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four,
with every mile her dowry’s more.

The two become four and the four become eight,
the seasons are smiling on her estate.
Her courage grows thicker as iron grows thin
and she blesses the roads that lead her to him.

7.  Babinagar’s Journey

I have seen the western powers
I have met Castilians
I have counted minarets
unfolding into millions and millions of flowers.

Through fields of water and through seas of
sand I will carry his ring on my
hand and as long as we two are a-
part I will marry his song to my
heart.

I followed first the citrus road
to lemon merchants’ distant lands,
but much too soon that trail went cold
so now I follow pelicans.

I have breached the garrisons
the guard the grey perimeter.
I have journeyed farther than
the Emirates of Jupiter.

I have journeyed farther than
the pilgrims indeterminate
who separate themselves
and disappear into the firmament

Heavy the water, and heavy the
sand with this ring weighing down my left
hand and as long as we two are a-
part I will marry his song to my
heart

I have crossed the Hindu-Kush
I have crossed the Caucuses
I have asked in every place
if they know where my husband is.

Have your people any news?
Stories of a serpent king?
Everywhere I am refused,
even when I sing to Yezidi and Berbers and Jews
and the Turkmen
and the Tartars
and the Aisors
and the Uighurs
and the Persians
and the Tajik
and the Pashtun
and the Magyars
and the Khazaks
and the Dacians
and the Latins
and the Christians
and the Saxons
and the Lombards
and the Thamud
and the Siwans

and still this iron wearing thin
will be my only news of him

Day will follow every night,
and soon the sky will clear;
journeying turns the
far to near and
everything
heavy
light

8.  The Dowry of Babinagar

Whose are these camels?  Whose are these sheep?
Who does these pastures and animals keep?
Whose are these everglades stretching so far?
“They are the dowry of Babinagar.”
Who lets these cows and these pelicans roam?
Who does these stables and boulevards own?
Whose are these looms that weave yard after yard?
“They are the dowry of Babinagar.”

Whose are these windmills with inlays of gold?
Who does this blossoming acreage hold?
Whose ivy and myrtle that cradle the stars?
“They belong to Khastakhumar –
they are the dowry of Babinagar.”

9.  The Well

I am thirsty –
I am weary –
The sun’s getting hotter.
I am thirsty –
I am weary –
Would you pull me some water?

Today I asked for water
to cut the dust and my
concubine poured on me
a bucketful of pus.

When I sent her back out
to check the well I had
dug, her bucket –
all it pulled up was
blood.

I am thirsty –
I am weary –
The sun’s getting hotter.
I am thirsty –
I am weary –
Would you pull me some water?

She told me a beggar
sang a song of her
thirst – I told her
to go and see to that
first – and when she
returned, a miraculous
thing – yes, the water, but
in the jug was my
ring.

10.  End / Beginning

You – Hello – the iron – the snakeskin! – I missed you – so long – who is that? – no one – the well? – I’m so happy you’re finally here! – oh husband – forgive me, I’d given up hoping you’d come.

Look at me, now I’m the faithless one.
(I’m undone, for my husband
would not believe that I would come)
I am yours but I cannot believe I deserve this,
it’s crushing, it’s too much,
it overflows and breaks my cup.
(so many miles, I traveled so far but was that all for you?  Or was that just for me?)

Do you love me?  Sure as the buckwheat I’ll carry!
Do you love me?  Sure as the woman I married!
Do you love me?  Sure as the children we’ll raise!
Do you love me?  As soon as I feel your embrace.

It would take more lives than one
To return the love you’ve shown.

It’s easier to chase the sun,
to drown the sea,
to tear down heaven
than to receive the love we’re given.

In nature, competing forces reconcile by articulating new features in space wherein both are expressed. Imagine the intertwining tendrils of a river delta, ever redirecting each other, or converging tectonic plates’ Himalayan compromise, or those trees sculpted by wind.

Composers are not obliged to imitate nature. We may ignore these tendencies, privilege some over others, or actively thwart them. But we can also listen to them and look for solutions that express them all. This kind of music is both sensitive to and generous with itself, like a fabric that cannot be lifted in one place without sharing that lift with every part. That is the ideal for music like Serenade.