We ate our breakfast lying on our backs,
Because the shells were screeching overhead.
“I bet a rasher to a loaf of bread
That Hull United would beat Halifax
When Jimmy Strainthorpe played full-back instead
Of Billy Bradford.” Ginger raised his head
And cursed, and took the bet; and dropped back dead.
We ate our breakfast lying on our backs,
Because the shells were screeching overhead.
Because the shells were screeching overhead.
“I bet a rasher to a loaf of bread
That Hull United would beat Halifax
When Jimmy Strainthorpe played full-back instead
Of Billy Bradford.” Ginger raised his head
And cursed, and took the bet; and dropped back dead.
We ate our breakfast lying on our backs,
Because the shells were screeching overhead.
inviata da Bernart Bartleby - 24/4/2014 - 15:07
Interpretata anche da The Unthanks el disco Lines part II interamente dedicato ai poeti della Prima Guerra Mondiale. Sul finale The Unthanks inseriscono dei versi tratti dalla canzone popolare Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire.
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Versi di Wilfrid Wilson Gibson (1878-1962), nella raccolta “Battle” pubblicata nel 1915.
Musica di Vartan Aghababian (compositore, docente di teoria musicale al Boston University College of Fine Arts) e Ann Moss, soprano, dall’opera “Seven Songs” del 2003.
Una poesia terribile che mescola quella che potrebbe essere una scena di vita quotidiana (il pasto, le chiacchiere, una scommessa sul calcio…) con la sequenza allucinante di un bombardamento che colpisce i soldati schiacciati in fondo ad una trincea…