JOAN BAEZ lyrics - La Colombe (The Dove)

(A. Clayre, J. Brel)



Why all these bugles cry

These squads of young men drill

To kill and to be killed

Stood waiting by the train



Why the orders loud and hoarse

Why the engine's groaning cough

As it strains to drag us all

Into the holocaust



Why crowds who sing and cry

And shout and fling us flowers

And trade their rights for ours

To murder and to die



[Chorus:]

The dove has torn her wing

So no more songs of love

We are not here to sing

We're here to kill the dove



Why must this moment come

When childhood has to die

When hope shrinks to a sigh

And speech into a drum



Why are they pale and still

Young boys trained over night

Concripts payed to kill

And dressed in gray to fight



These rainclouds massing tight

This train load battle bound

This moving burial ground

Goes thundering to the night



[Chorus]



Why statues towering grave

Above the last defeat

Old words and lies repeat

Across a new made grave



And why the same still birds

That victory always brought

These hours of glory bought

By men with mounds of earth



Dead ash without a spark

Where cities used to be

Where guns probe every spark

And crush it into dust



[Chorus]



And while your face undone

With jagged lines of tears

That gave in those first years

All the peace I'd ever want



Your body in the gloom

The platform fading back

Your shadow on the track

A flower upon a tomb



And why these days ahead

When I must let you cry

And live prepared to die

And to....



[Chorus]