On the last hill that shows you all the valley
Look back to see what little's to be seen
Burned books left over from the rally
A worker-priest left bleeding in the alley
And realise this place was never green
On the last hill that shows you all your travel
Look back to see your tepees disappear
A team of army dump-trucks full of gravel
Comes to fill the graves and tamp them level
The buffalo will not return this year
On the last hill that brands you as a dreamer
Look back to see the dreams were always true
The Persians went ashore at Iwo Jima
Christ was in the gold mines at Kolyma
Denounced because his mother was a Jew
On the last hill that shows you all the battle
Look back to everywhere you cried for joy
The killer-dogs run down your barren cattle
Your kid Cassandra walks collecting metal
And you'll see when those rows of dust-clouds settle
There are helicopters on the walls of Troy
Look back to see what little's to be seen
Burned books left over from the rally
A worker-priest left bleeding in the alley
And realise this place was never green
On the last hill that shows you all your travel
Look back to see your tepees disappear
A team of army dump-trucks full of gravel
Comes to fill the graves and tamp them level
The buffalo will not return this year
On the last hill that brands you as a dreamer
Look back to see the dreams were always true
The Persians went ashore at Iwo Jima
Christ was in the gold mines at Kolyma
Denounced because his mother was a Jew
On the last hill that shows you all the battle
Look back to everywhere you cried for joy
The killer-dogs run down your barren cattle
Your kid Cassandra walks collecting metal
And you'll see when those rows of dust-clouds settle
There are helicopters on the walls of Troy
Contributed by Bartleby - 2012/1/11 - 14:16
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Album “A King at Nightfall”
Parole di Clive James
Musica di Pete Atkin
Un testo poetico piuttosto criptico dove però sono evidenti i riferimenti all’avvento del nazismo, alla strage dei nativi nord-americani, alle guerre antiche (persiani e greci alle Termopili) non diverse in ferocia da quelle moderne (americani e giapponesi a Iwo Jima), ai gulag stalinisti (come quello di Kolyma, in Siberia, dove si stima trovarono la morte 3 milioni di deportati) e all’antisemitismo sempre presente in Russia sia al tempo degli zar che in epoca comunista (e ancora ben vigoroso anche ai giorni nostri, aggiungo io) e all’infausto destino di molti uomini buoni che come Cassandra gridano la verità nei deserti mentre sulle mura di Troia volteggiano gli elicotteri da guerra…
Insomma, una canzone dedicata a ciò che il poeta scozzese Robert Burns - nella sua canzone intitolata “Man Was Made To Mourn: A Dirge” (1784) - per primo chiamò la “Man's inhumanity to man”.
Comunque, come per Driving Through Mythical America, un testo molto ricco di riferimenti letterari e storici, per la cui miglior comprensione rimando alle note di Richard Bleksley.