Lyr Add: For King and Country (Eric Bogle)

Subject: Lyr Add: FOR KING AND COUNTRY (Eric Bogle)
From: Ezio
Date: 21 Aug 98 - 09:05 AM

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(Format=Real Audio 3.0, 28.8 mono *** Time=01:11 *** Size=141 kb)
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FOR KING AND COUNTRY

(Eric Bogle)

Chorus:
For King and for Country
We fought and we died
In the first flush of the down
In the fields of Somme

First to die was our Captain
He was shot through the lung
He lay in the mud
And he chocked in his blood

Chorus

And ten minutes later
On these green fields of France
The grass has turned red
And thousands were dead

Chorus

And all through that morning
The slaughter went on
We screamed and we cried
And cursed God as we died

Chorus

And when it was over
And the killing was done
A generation had gone
A generation had gone!

Chorus

--- Sung by Eric Bogle on 'DOWN UNDER' (1981)

Submitted by E.B.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: For King and Country (w/RealAudio)
From: Wolfgang
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 11:52 AM

Long time ago I have translated that song into German:

FÜR KAISER UND VATERLAND

Für Kaiser und Vaterland
wir kämpften und starben
und fanden den Sarg
bei Langemarck*.

Zuerst starb der Hauptmann,
ein Schuss in die Lunge,
spukte Blut und voll Dreck
ist im Schlamm er verreckt.

Und zehn Minuten später,
im belgischen Feld,
das Gras war jetzt rot
und tausende tot.

Und an jenem Morgen
das Schlachten hielt an,
wir schrie'n und marschierten,
fluchten Gott und krepierten.

Und als es vorbei war,
das Morden zu Ende,
da fehlte der Nation
eine Generation.

*Langemarck: Nov 10, 1914, several 1000 German young recruits were marched with no chance at all towards machine gun positions and 2000 died singing the 'Deutschlandlied' which later became the national anthem. For German militarists, 'Langemarck' or 'remember Langemarck' was a war cry and became a myth symbolising unselfish sacrifice for the nation, instead of what it was, a completely pointless slaughter with nothing heroic in it. The German youngsters now even don't know the name Langemarck nor what it once did symbolise. I think that ignorance is a very good sign.

Wolfgang