Feb 2022
This is the new version of an older set of lyrics that needed some time to mature, I re-worked and edited it this morning and still made some tweaks this evening, and I guess it is taking on more and more the shape it was supposed to...
Yugoslavia
They ask me why I keep singing
about young women, tousled trees…
they ask why I’m clinging
to curved hills and a blue sea
They ask how could I be dreaming
of another promised land...?!!
with streets and squares teeming
with a language I understand…
They shake their heads, tell me to wake up
from this dream, accessories…
as if that’s easy, as if I could ever break up
with those memories…
(Chorus)
I still see the same stars… flying,
the same moon, so far…
I hear their smiles and children crying,
Yugoslavia… it is in my heart…
Daily routine tried to squash out
the last remnants, but we are who we are…
how could you think those tears could ever wash out
Yugoslavia… Yugoslavia from my heart…?
They ask me why I feel sorry
for something that can’t be retrieved…
what’s the use of stories?
it’s another life they live…
But in me, there are those mountains,
rusty gates, that southern sun,
grandmas and clear fountains,
wide lakes, a “whiskey” made of plums…
They wonder why I think of gone springs,
islands, roads, warm winds and woods…
but how could I expect them to understand something
they’ve never understood…?
(Chorus x2)
I still see the same stars… flying,
the same moon, so far…
I hear their smiles and children crying,
Yugoslavia… it is in my heart…
Daily routine tried to squash out
the last remnants, but we are who we are…
how could you think those tears could ever wash out
Yugoslavia… Yugoslavia from my heart…?
@timfatchen Feb 2022
This one deserves setting. Arthur, I'm just not up to it, I think it seriously needs someone closer in background/ancestry. Or someone else who's lost their home irretrievably, on that scale. (having had my childhood living palce totally destroyed, with almost no trace remaining, I can sort-of feel, but not at the depth needed). Powerful stuff.
@sjbatavia Feb 2022
Oh I can hear a klezmer tune to this, but sadly it is beyond my capability. Great poetic emotions. Nice job.