A Letter Home

1 HERE I’m sitting in the gloom
Of my quiet attic room.
France goes rolling all around,
Fledged with forest May has crowned.
And I puff my pipe, calm-hearted,
Thinking how the fighting started,
Wondering when we’ll ever end it,
Back to Hell with Kaiser send it,
Gag the noise, pack up and go,
Clockwork soldiers in a row.
I’ve got better things to do
Than to waste my time on you.
2 Robert, when I drowse to-night,
Skirting lawns of sleep to chase
Shifting dreams in mazy light,
Somewhere then I’ll see your face
Turning back to bid me follow
Where I wag my arms and hollo,
Over hedges hasting after
Crooked smile and baffling laughter.
Running tireless, floating, leaping,
Down your web-hung woods and valleys,
Garden glooms and hornbeam alleys,
Where the glowworm stars are peeping,
Till I find you, quiet as stone
On a hill-top all alone,
Staring outward, gravely pondering
Jumbled leagues of hillock-wandering.
3 You and I have walked together
In the starving winter weather.
We’ve been glad because we knew
Time’s too short and friends are few.
We’ve been sad because we missed
One whose yellow head was kissed
By the gods, who thought about him
Till they couldn’t do without him.
Now he’s here again; I’ve seen
Soldier David dressed in green,
Standing in a wood that swings
To the madrigal he sings.
He’s come back, all mirth and glory,
Like the prince in fairy story.
Winter called him far away;
Blossoms bring him home with May.
4 Well, I know you’ll swear it’s true
That you found him decked in blue
Striding up through morning-land
With a cloud on either hand.
Out in Wales, you’ll say, he marches,
Arm in arm with oaks and larches;
Hides all night in hilly nooks,
Laughs at dawn in tumbling brooks.
Yet, it’s certain, here he teaches
Outpost-schemes to groups of beeches.
And I’m sure, as here I stand,
That he shines through every land,
That he sings in every place
Where we’re thinking of his face.
5 Robert, there’s a war in France;
Everywhere men bang and blunder,
Sweat and swear and worship Chance,
Creep and blink through cannon thunder.
Rifles crack and bullets flick,
Sing and hum like hornet-swarms.
Bones are smashed and buried quick.
Yet, through stunning battle storms,
All the while I watch the spark
Lit to guide me; for I know
Dreams will triumph, though the dark
Scowls above me where I go.
You can hear me; you can mingle
Radiant folly with my jingle.
War’s a joke for me and you
While we know such dreams are true! S.S. Flixécourt. May 1916.

Este texto foi utilizado pelas Electrelane para a letra de um dos seus temas, "The Valleys", que está presente no álbum "The Power Out".

Folhas Secas 25 Outubro

Em mais uma quarta feira chuvosa e cinzenta, Rui Oliveira abriga-se no estúdio da chuva que desabava lá fora, mas carregava na cor cinzenta implícita nas músicas que acompanharam mais esta emissão:

Loopooloo - ...E mais uma coisa
Sinde Filipe\Armando Teixeira - Encostei-me para trás na cadeira do convés
Johnny Cash - Hurt
My Latest Novel - Ghost in the Gutter
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - We Chose Faces
Jeff Buckley - Mojo Pin
El Perro del Mar - This Loneliness
Goldfrapp - Paper Bag
Electrelane - The Valleys
Blur - Battle

"A preto se escreveu a história do fim da miserável vida da infelicidade..."

"E havia luar e mar e a solidão, ó Álvaro!"

Novembro chega na próxima quarta-feira, o frio, a chuva e a palidez do tempo cada vez mais consomem os nossos dias, estamos no Outono...

As primeiras folhas secas...

A primeira porção de melancolia do ano foi oferecida por Miguel Henriques em tarde cinzenta e chuvosa, dando o mote ao clima exterior e interior do programa.

Eis a banda sonora depressiva e outonal de 18 de Outubro de 2006:

Bauhaus - Hollow Hills [Crackle; 1998]
Nouvelle Vague – Waves [Bande à part; 2006]
Nick Cave – Disco 2000 [Bad covers version single ; 2001]
Tom Waits – Tom Traubert’s blues (four sheets to the wind in Copenhagen) [Basquiat; 1996]
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – The sweets [Show your bones; 2006]
Pixies – Wave of mutilation [Death to the Pixies; 1997]
Brian Setzer Orchestra – Sleepwalk [Dirty boogie; 1998]
The Ronettes – Be my baby [Dirty dancing; 2002]
Serge Gainsbourg – Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais [Anthologie ; 2003]
Divine Comedy – A lady of a certain age [Victory for the comic muse ; 2006]
Luís Folgado – A manhã seguinte [2006]
Radiohead – Bullet proof wish I was [The Bends; 1995]
dEUS – Nothing really ends [No more bad music; 2001]

Folhas Secas, Palavras caídas:

“Baleful sounds and wild voices ignored Ill luck disaster the one reward Violated sanctity of supermen's hills So sad, love lies there still So sad So sad Hollow hills”

"it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace And a wound that will never heal No prima donna, the perfume is on An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey And goodnight to the street sweepers The night watchman flame keepers and goodnight to Matilda too"

“Green shadow, water weight all o-all over me The end will shelter me away from me Can we meet again, meet and meet and meet and meet again Can ya fill the can if ya can’t fill me?”

“cease to resist, giving my goodbye drive my car into the ocean you'll think i'm dead, but i sail away on a wave of mutilation”

« tu t'souviens des jours heureux et tu pleures tu sanglotes, tu gémis à présent qu'a sonné l'heure des adieux à jamais oui je suis au regret d'te dir'que je m'en vais”

“Limb by limb and tooth by tooth Tearing up inside of me Every day every hour I wish that I was bullet proof”

Folhas Secas

Numa qualquer tarde de Outono, procuramos a introspecção pessoal. Viajando até ao fundo da tristeza e melancolia a que cada um pode chegar, acompanha-nos por banda sonora «Folhas Secas».