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When Verey Lights Are Shining

Anonymous
Language: English




‎[1914-18]‎
Canzone di trincea, sulla melodia della popolare “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” scritta nel 1912 da ‎Chauncey Olcott e George Graff, Jr. con la musica di Ernest Ball e portata al successo prorpio negli ‎anni della Grande Guerra dal tenore irlandese John McCormack.‎
Testo trovato su Mudcat Café‎

Questa versione racconta degli attimi precedenti ad un attacco alla baionetta: quando i razzi ‎illuminanti (Very o Verey) fanno della notte mattino, quando i cannoni cominciano a tuonare, ‎quando i mortai cominciano a lanciare e le mitragliatrici (Maxims) a crepitare, quando le bombe ‎cominciano a piovere ed i gas a serpeggiare, quando anche gli angeli su nel cielo cominciano a ‎farsela addosso, allora, soldatino, è giunta la tua ora: è questo il momento di buttar giù un bel po’ di ‎rum e di andare all’attacco…‎

‎
Never come between a ‎man and his rum‎
Never come between a ‎man and his rum‎


‎
“The finest thing that ever happened in the tranches was the rum ration, and ‎never was it more needed than on the Somme. Yet some blasted, ignorant fool of a general — ‎damned in this world and the next — wanted to stop it and, for a time, did. The man must be worse ‎than the lowest type of criminal, have no knowledge of the conditions in which the troops exist, and ‎be entirely out of touch with the men who are unfortunate enough to have him as their commander. ‎He should have been taken up to the line and frozen in the mud. I would have then very willingly ‎sat on his head, as he was a danger to the whole army. Curse him. Those who have not spent a ‎night standing or sitting or lying in mud with an east wind blowing and the temperature below ‎freezing may think that I am extravagant in my abuse of the man who denied the soldiers their rum ‎rations. Those who have will know that I am too temperate.”
‎
‎(Stralcio di una lettera scritta il 30 giugno 1916 dal capitano inglese Alexander Stewart in trincea nella ‎Somme)‎
When Verey lights are shining,
Sure they're like the morning light
And when the guns begin to thunder
You can hear the angel's shite.
Then the Maxims start to chatter
And trench mortars send a few,
And when Verey lights are shining
‎'Tis time for a rum issue.
‎
When Very lights are shining
Sure 'tis like the morning dew,
And when shells begin a bursting
It makes you think your times come too.
And when you start advancing
Five nines and gas comes through,
Sure when Verey lights are shining
‎'Tis rum or lead for you.‎

Contributed by Dead End - 2012/11/14 - 10:35


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