The green fields of France

Añadir leyenda

La primera vez que escuché esta hermosa canción titulada "The green fields of France" (asimismo se la conoce como "No man's land" o "Willie McBride") y compuesta por el australiano-escocés Eric Bogle en 1976, fué una hermosa mañana de Carnaval al Mr. de la foto superior, - el me dijo el título - en Galway (Irlanda). Es una melancólica  canción que trata de un soldado de 19 años muerto en la primera guerra mudial. Al parecer murieron  en la citada guerra, según la Comisión de la Commonwealth, al menos 6 soldados llamados  Willie McBride y al menos 8 con el nombre de W. McBride. Os dejo esta versión de The Dropkick Murphys.

Oh how do you do now, young Willy McBride

Do you mind if I sit down beside your graveside

And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun

I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done

Well I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen

When you joined the great fallen of 1916

Well I hope you died well

And I hope you died clean

Or Willy McBride, was is it slow and obscene

Did they beat the drums slowly

And play the fife lowly

Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?

Did the band sound the last post and chorus?

Did they pipe the Flowers of the Forest?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind

In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined

And though you died back in 1916

To that loyal heart you're forever nineteen

Or are you a stranger without even a name

Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane

In an old photograph torn, tattered, and stained

And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame

Did they beat the drums slowly

Did they play the fife lowly

Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down

Did the band play the last post and chorus

Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

The sun shining down on these green fields of France

The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance

The trenches have vanished long under the plow

No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now

But here in this graveyard that's still no mans land

The countless white crosses in mute witness stand

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man

And a whole generation were butchered and damned

Did they beat the drums slowly

Did they play the fife lowly

Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down

Did the band play the last post and chorus

Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

And I can't help but wonder oh Willy McBride

Do all those who lie here know why they died

Did you really believe them when they told you the cause

Did you really believe that this war would end wars

Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame

The killing and dying it was all done in vain

Oh Willy McBride it all happened again

And again, and again, and again, and again

Did they beat the drums slowly

Did they play the fife lowly

Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down

Did the band play the last post and chorus

Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest