The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Ryan Kelly

[00:00.000] 作曲 : Ryan Kelly
[00:00.52]When I was a young man I carried my pack,
[00:05.98]and I lived the free life of a rover.
[00:11.50]From the Murray‘s green basin to the dusty outback,
[00:15.99]I waltzed my Matilda all over.
[00:21.10]Then in 1915 my country said: Son,
[00:26.67]it's time to stop rambling, there's work to be done.
[00:32.17]So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun.
[00:38.99]And they sent me away to the war.
[01:02.60]And the band played Waltzing Matilda,
[01:07.92]as the ship pulled away from the quay,
[01:13.21]and amid all the cheers, flag-waving and tears,
[01:19.78]we sailed off for Gallipoli.
[01:25.26]It well I remember that terrible day,
[01:30.38]when our blood stained the sand and the water.
[01:35.63]How in that hell that they called Suvla Bay,
[01:41.30]we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
[01:45.94]Johnny Turk he was ready, oh, he primed himself well.
[01:51.34]He rained us with bullets, and he showered us with shells.
[01:56.72]And in five minutes flat, we're all blown to hell,
[02:03.49]nearly blew us back home to Australia.
[02:08.78]And the band played Waltzing Matilda,
[02:13.74]when we stopped to bury our slain.
[02:19.17]We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs,
[02:25.88]then we started all over again.
[02:38.19]Those that were leaving, well we tried to survive,
[02:43.25]in a mad world of blood, death and fire.
[02:48.43]And for ten weary weeks I just kept myself alive,
[02:53.68]as around me the corpses piled higher.
[02:58.94]Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head,
[03:04.15]and when I awoke in my hospital bed.
[03:09.36]And saw what it had done, I wished I were dead.
[03:17.96]Never knew there were worse things than dying.
[03:22.94]For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda,
[03:27.91]all around the green bush far and free.
[03:33.55]For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs.
[03:39.99]No more waltzing Matilda for me.
[03:45.52]They gathered the crippled, the wounded, and the maimed.
[03:50.61]And they shipped us back home to Australia.
[03:56.15]The armless, The legless, the blind, the insane,
[04:01.41]those proud wounded heroes of Suvla.
[04:06.45]And as the ship pulled into Circular Quay,
[04:11.67]and I looked at the place where my legs used to be.
[04:16.88]And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me,
[04:23.61]to grieve and to mourn and to pity.
[04:29.55]And the band played Waltzing Matilda,
[04:34.50]as they carried us down the gangway.
[04:39.66]But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared,
[04:46.20]Then turned all their faces away.
[04:58.25]Now every April I sit on my porch,
[05:03.60]and I watch the parade pass before me.
[05:08.74]I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
[05:13.82]reliving old dreams of past glories.
[05:19.34]I see the old men, all tired, stiff and sore,
[05:24.69]those weary old heroes of a forgotten war.
[05:30.13]And the young people ask: \"What are they marching for?\"
[05:36.87]And I ask myself the same question.
[05:41.98]And the band plays Waltzing Matilda,
[05:47.15]and the old men still answer the call.
[05:52.44]But year after year, more of them disappear,
[05:58.81]Someday no one will march there at all.
[06:05.48]Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
[06:11.51]Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
[06:18.70]And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong,
[06:26.37]who'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me?