Joan Baez - La Colombe (The Dove) [HD]

Описание: Joan Baez sings the Jacques Brel song 'La Colombe (The Dove)' from her 1967 Vanguard album 'Joan'. Since the song was written by a French singer and I believe he had the French war in Algeria in mind, the video shows mostly images from Europe - one is the oldest known photograph ever taken. The song lyrics are in the video and listed below along with the French lyrics from Brel's own version. The English lyrics differ some from the Brel version and were translated by Alasdair Clayre.

This video surprised me. Most people aren't as fiercely anti-war as Joan Baez but when I had a rough form of this video with lyrics and initial pictures and watched it for the first time, I was surprised by how powerful the song was and what an effect it had. I hope the name and theme the song don't prevent others from watching this.

The last line of the next to last verse is hard to hear clearly above the music. It's either "And to guard all our dead" or "And to guard our dead" with the word "our" stretched to two beats. I went with the former but the latter wording makes more poetic sense to me.

[Vinyl/Lyrics/35-Images/WAV]


La Colombe (The Dove)

Singer - Joan Baez

Why all these bugles cry
These squads of young men drill
To kill and to be killed
Stood waiting by the train

Why the orders loud and hoarse
Why the engine's groaning cough
As it strains to drag us all
Into the holocaust

Why crowds who sing and cry
And shout and fling us flowers
And trade their rights for ours
To murder and to die

The dove has torn her wing
So no more songs of love
We are not here to sing
We're here to kill the dove

Why must 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 paid to kill
And dressed in gray to fight

These rainclouds massing tight
This train load battle bound
This moving burial ground
Goes thundering to the night

The dove has torn her wing
So no more songs of love
We are not here to sing
We're here to kill the dove

Why statues towering grave
Above the last defeat
Old words and lies repeat
Across a new made grave

And why the same still bird
That victory always brought
These hours of glory bought
By men with mouths of earth

Dead ash without a spark
Where cities used to be
For guns probe every spark
And crush it into dust

The dove has torn her wing
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 the peace I'd ever want

Your body in the gloom
The platform fading back
Your shadow on the track
A flower upon a tomb

And why these days ahead
When I must let you cry
And live prepared to die
And to guard all our dead

The dove has torn her wing
So no more songs of love
We are not here to sing
We're here to kill the dove

Songwriter: Jacques Brel

© Carlin America Inc.

[Lyrics from: LyricFind]


La Colombe

Singer - Jacques Brel

Pourquoi cette fanfare
Quand les soldats par quatre
Attendent les massacres
Sur le quai d'une gare

Pourquoi ce train ventru
Qui ronronne et soupire
Avant de nous conduire
Jusqu'au malentendu

Pourquoi les chants les cris
Des foules venues fleurir
Ceux qui ont le droit d'partir
Au nom de leurs conneries

Nous n'irons plus au bois
La colombe est blessée
Nous n'allons pas au bois
Nous allons la tuer

Pourquoi l'heure que voilà
Où finit notre enfance
Où finit notre chance
Où notre train s'en va

Pourquoi ce lourd convoi
Chargé d'hommes en gris
Repeints en une nuit
Pour partir en soldats

Pourquoi ce train de pluie
Pourquoi ce train de guerre
Pourquoi ce cimetière
En marche vers la nuit

Nous n'irons plus au bois
La colombe est blessée
Nous n'allons pas au bois
Nous allons la tuer

Pourquoi les monuments
Qu'offriront les défaites
Les phrases déjà faites
Qui suivront l'enterrement

Pourquoi l'enfant mort-né
Que sera la victoire
Pourquoi les jours de gloire
Que d'autres auront payés

Pourquoi ces coins de terre
Que l'on va peindre en gris
Puisque c'est au fusil
Qu'on éteint la lumière

Nous n'irons plus au bois
La colombe est blessée
Nous n'allons pas au bois
Nous allons la tuer

Pourquoi ton cher visage
Dégrafé par les larmes
Qui me rendait les armes
Aux sources du voyage

Pourquoi ton corps qui sombre
Ton corps qui disparaît
Et n'est plus sur le quai
Qu'une fleur sur une tombe

Pourquoi ces prochains jours
Où je devrais penser
A ne plus m'habiller
Que d'une moitié d'amour

Nous n'irons plus au bois
La colombe est blessée
Nous n'allons pas au bois
Nous allons la tuer

Songwriter: Jacques Brel

© Carlin America Inc.

[Lyrics from LyricFind]