"This song is dedicated to the people of East Timor who, it seems, are finally getting the opportunity to taste the sweet breath of freedom. The song recalls the massacre of Dili (by Indoinesian troops) in November 1991." Peter Hicks
Early one November morning,
The people there, most of them poor,
They prayed for the soul of their brother
Shot dead only two weeks before.
As they stood there by his graveside,
Holding freedom's banner up high
The soldiers appeared out of nowhere,
Their guns a-blazing with fire.
The soldiers they aimed their machine-guns;
A thousand they fell to the ground;
And when the trucks came by for the bodies
Two hundred dead mourners they found.
Most of them had never seen twenty -
It was the massacre of the young,
As those who had first killed the parents
Now came for the daughters and sons.
So we'll mourn for the martyrs of Dili and
The two hundred thousand before -
For to yearn for the sweet breath of freedom can
Prove costly here in East Timor.
It's been happening over and over
Since 1975 -
Since Indonesia invaded
You whisper in fear of your life.
Like the slaughter unleashed at Kraras
Back in 1983,
But our governments don't get too worried
'Bout the fate of the East Timorese.
So we'll mourn for the martyrs of Dili and
The two hundred thousand before -
For to yearn for the sweet breath of freedom can
Prove costly here in East Timor.
Australia was embarrassed -
"It's a tragedy," they said.
But there's oil out there in the Timor Gap,
That's worth more than a million dead.
In the White House, they said nothing,
This wasn't another Kuwait;
Sure, Suharto's a murderer and dictator, but
He's a friend of the US of A.
So we'll mourn for the martyrs of Dili and
The two hundred thousand before -
For to yearn for the sweet breath of freedom can
Prove costly here in East Timor.
But you can't execute a whole nation,
And you can't keep a people in chains;
And the resistance will never stop fighting
Until freedom's prize they have gained.
They'll do it all with our help,
Or they'll do it alone if they must,
But they never will yield or surrender
The land that they know and they love.
Yes, we'll sing for the people of Dili,
For their struggle and their destiny,
An' each day that we sing we'll sing louder
Until East Timor will be free.
Yes, we'll sing for the people of Dili,
For their struggle and their destiny,
An' each day that we sing we'll sing louder
Until East Timor will be free.
The people there, most of them poor,
They prayed for the soul of their brother
Shot dead only two weeks before.
As they stood there by his graveside,
Holding freedom's banner up high
The soldiers appeared out of nowhere,
Their guns a-blazing with fire.
The soldiers they aimed their machine-guns;
A thousand they fell to the ground;
And when the trucks came by for the bodies
Two hundred dead mourners they found.
Most of them had never seen twenty -
It was the massacre of the young,
As those who had first killed the parents
Now came for the daughters and sons.
So we'll mourn for the martyrs of Dili and
The two hundred thousand before -
For to yearn for the sweet breath of freedom can
Prove costly here in East Timor.
It's been happening over and over
Since 1975 -
Since Indonesia invaded
You whisper in fear of your life.
Like the slaughter unleashed at Kraras
Back in 1983,
But our governments don't get too worried
'Bout the fate of the East Timorese.
So we'll mourn for the martyrs of Dili and
The two hundred thousand before -
For to yearn for the sweet breath of freedom can
Prove costly here in East Timor.
Australia was embarrassed -
"It's a tragedy," they said.
But there's oil out there in the Timor Gap,
That's worth more than a million dead.
In the White House, they said nothing,
This wasn't another Kuwait;
Sure, Suharto's a murderer and dictator, but
He's a friend of the US of A.
So we'll mourn for the martyrs of Dili and
The two hundred thousand before -
For to yearn for the sweet breath of freedom can
Prove costly here in East Timor.
But you can't execute a whole nation,
And you can't keep a people in chains;
And the resistance will never stop fighting
Until freedom's prize they have gained.
They'll do it all with our help,
Or they'll do it alone if they must,
But they never will yield or surrender
The land that they know and they love.
Yes, we'll sing for the people of Dili,
For their struggle and their destiny,
An' each day that we sing we'll sing louder
Until East Timor will be free.
Yes, we'll sing for the people of Dili,
For their struggle and their destiny,
An' each day that we sing we'll sing louder
Until East Timor will be free.
inviata da Marcia - 26/11/2008 - 10:55
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