Jennifer_SFBA
06/08/06, 02:49 am
I collect folk music. A haunting song of peace, in the face of the horrors of war I collected, is La Colombe - The Dove. Judy Collins and Joan Baez sang it during the time of the Vietnam War though the song is about another war that took place at another time. La Colombe - The Dove speaks universal truth about the human experience of war through the words, the cadence and the music. In that song, I feel our common humanity as I am drawn there by the music to become one with the people spoken about and their experience.
I prefer Joan Baez' rendition of the song, La Colombe - The Dove, though, both Judy Collins and Joan Baez do the song justice as it resonates powerfully through their souls.
I found the song, La Colombe - The Dove below on a Ukrainian website:
http://lyrics.mp3s.ru/perl/lyric.pl?hyYhpMAZWMtO2&15685
Текст песни «L - La Colombe»
LA COLOMBE
Why all these bugles crying / for squads of young men drilled
To kill and to be killed / and waiting by this train
Why the orders loud and hoarse, / why the engine's groaning cough
As it strains to drag us off / into the holocaust
Why crowds who sing and cry / and shout and fling us flowers
And trade their right for ours / to murder and to die
The dove has torn her wings / so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, / we're here to kill the dove
Why has this moment come / when childhood has to die
When hope shrinks to a sigh / and speech into a drum
Why are they pale and still, / young boys trained overnight
Conscripts forced to fight / and dressed in grey to kill
These rain clouds massing tight, / this trainload battle bound
This moving burial ground / sent thundering toward the night
The dove has torn her wings / so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, / we're here to kill the dove
Why statues towering brave / above the last defeat
Old word and lies repeat / across the new made grave
Why the same still birth / that victory always brought
These hoards of glory bought / by men with mouths of earth
Dead ash without a spark / where cities glittered bright
For guns probe every light / and crush it in the dark
The dove has torn her wings / so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, / we're here to kill the dove
And why your face undone / with jagged lines of tears
That gave in those first years / all peace I ever won
Your body in the gloom, / the platform fading back
Your shadow on the track, / a flower on a tomb
And why these days ahead / when I must let you cry
And live prepared to die / as if our love were dead
The dove has torn her wings / so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, / we're here to kill the dove
@war @soldier @love
by Alasdair Clayre
recorded by Judy Collins
filename[ LACOLOMB
SF
I prefer Joan Baez' rendition of the song, La Colombe - The Dove, though, both Judy Collins and Joan Baez do the song justice as it resonates powerfully through their souls.
I found the song, La Colombe - The Dove below on a Ukrainian website:
http://lyrics.mp3s.ru/perl/lyric.pl?hyYhpMAZWMtO2&15685
Текст песни «L - La Colombe»
LA COLOMBE
Why all these bugles crying / for squads of young men drilled
To kill and to be killed / and waiting by this train
Why the orders loud and hoarse, / why the engine's groaning cough
As it strains to drag us off / into the holocaust
Why crowds who sing and cry / and shout and fling us flowers
And trade their right for ours / to murder and to die
The dove has torn her wings / so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, / we're here to kill the dove
Why has this moment come / when childhood has to die
When hope shrinks to a sigh / and speech into a drum
Why are they pale and still, / young boys trained overnight
Conscripts forced to fight / and dressed in grey to kill
These rain clouds massing tight, / this trainload battle bound
This moving burial ground / sent thundering toward the night
The dove has torn her wings / so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, / we're here to kill the dove
Why statues towering brave / above the last defeat
Old word and lies repeat / across the new made grave
Why the same still birth / that victory always brought
These hoards of glory bought / by men with mouths of earth
Dead ash without a spark / where cities glittered bright
For guns probe every light / and crush it in the dark
The dove has torn her wings / so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, / we're here to kill the dove
And why your face undone / with jagged lines of tears
That gave in those first years / all peace I ever won
Your body in the gloom, / the platform fading back
Your shadow on the track, / a flower on a tomb
And why these days ahead / when I must let you cry
And live prepared to die / as if our love were dead
The dove has torn her wings / so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, / we're here to kill the dove
@war @soldier @love
by Alasdair Clayre
recorded by Judy Collins
filename[ LACOLOMB
SF