Leonard Bernstein
X. Credo - 4. Trope: “World Without End”
[STREET Chorus] (interrupting pre-recorded
Tape)
Non erit finis …
World without end …
[MEZZO-SOPRANO SOLO]
Whispers of living, echoes of warning
Phantoms of laughter on the edges of
Morning
World without end spins endlessly on
Only the men who lived here are gone
Gone on a permanent vacation
Gone to await the next creation
World without end at the end of the world
Lord, don’t you know it’s the end of the
World?
Lord, don’t you care if it all ends today?
Sometimes I’d swеar that you planned it
This way …
Dark are the citiеs, dead is the ocean
Silent and sickly are the remnants of
Motion
World without end turns mindlessly round
Never a sentry, never a sound
No one to prophesy disaster
No one to help it happen faster
No one to expedite the fall
No one to soil the breeze
No one to oil the seas
No one to anything
No one to anything
No one to anything at all
(Recording interrupts.)
(Tape Eight.)
[CHOIR]
Et in Spiritum Sanctum
Dominum et vivificantem:
Qui ex Patre Filioque procedit
Qui cum Patre, et Filio simul adoratur, et
Conglorificatur:
Qui locutus est per Prophetas
Et unam sanctam catholicam et
Apostolicam Ecclesiam
Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem
Peccatorum
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum
Et vitam venturi saeculi
Amen
[THREE SOLOS]
You chose …
Hurry and come again …
You rose …
World without end, end of the world!
A man!
Bags packed, wings sewn …
End of the world!
A man!
Wings sewn
Lord, don’t you care?
You chose!
Hurry!
Lord, don’t you care?
You rose!
Hurry!