BOGLE, Ericの最近のブログ記事

TITLE: The Band Played Waltzing Matilda　（ザ・バンド・プレイド・ワルツィング・マティルダ）
AUTHOR: Eric Bogle　（エリック・ボーグル）
PERFORMER: Eric Bogle　（エリック・ボーグル）

毎年4月25日はオーストラリアとニュージーランドでは国民の祝日です。「アンザック（ＡＮＺＡＣ）・デー」です。ＡＮＺＡＣとは、オーストラリア・ニュージーランド連合軍のことを指し、今回の歌にも出てくるガリポリ上陸作戦に投入された兵士たちです。

第一次世界大戦は、1914年のサラエボでの事件をきっかけとして世界各地で戦闘が行われます。歌詞にもあるように、1915年、トルコのガリポリへの上陸作戦が決行されます。すぐに「片がつく」とでも考えたのでしょうが、戦いには相手がつきものです。思うようにいくとは限りません。ガリポリでも、多数の死者を出す結果になってしまいました。

スコットランド生まれで、オーストラリア在住のエリック・ボーグルがきれいな声で生々しい歌を歌います。

多少の注釈です。
the Murray: マレー川（オーストラリア南端部に河口をもつ川）
waltz Matilda: 「荷物を持ってあちこち旅をする」という意味の表現
Gallipoli: ガリポリ（トルコの半島）
Suvla Bay: スブラ湾（ガリポリ半島にある湾）
Circular Quay: サーキュラー埠頭（オーストラリアのシドニー湾にある）

Now when I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback
Well I waltzed my Matilda all over

Then in nineteen fifteen my country said son
It's time you stopped rambling there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they marched me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As the ship pulled away from the quay
And amidst all the tears, the flag-waving and cheers
We sailed off for Gallipoli

And how well I remember that terrible day
How our blood stained the sand and the water
And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter

Johnny Turk he was waiting, he'd primed himself well
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia

But the band played Waltzing Matilda
When we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

And those that were left, well we tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
Though around me the corpses piled higher

Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well I wished I was dead
Never knew there was worse things than dying

For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and free
To hump tents and pegs, a man needs both legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they gathered the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla

And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve, to mourn and to pity

But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

And so now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reviving old dreams of past glories

And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, what are they marching for
And I ask myself the same question

But the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But as year follows year more old men disappear
Someday no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard
As they march by that billabong

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me