《Leaving Beirut》歌词

[00:10:13] Leaving Beirut - Roger Waters

[00:10:13] So we left Beirut Willa and I

[00:10:13] He headed East to Baghdad and the rest of it

[00:10:13] I set out North

[00:10:13] I walked the five or six miles to the last of the street lamps

[00:10:13] And hunkered in the curb side dusk

[00:10:13] Holding out my thumb

[00:10:13] In no great hope at the ramshackle procession of home bound traffic

[00:10:13] Success!

[00:10:13] An ancient Mercedes 'dolmus '

[00:10:13] The ubiquitous, Arab, shared taxi drew up

[00:10:13] I turned out my pockets and shrugged at the driver

[00:10:13] " J'ai pas de l'argent "

[00:10:13] " Venez! " A soft voice from the back seat

[00:10:13] The driver lent wearily across and pushed open the back door

[00:10:13] I stooped to look inside at the two men there

[00:10:13] One besuited, bespectacled, moustached, irritated, distant, late

[00:10:13] The other, the one who had spoken,

[00:10:13] Frail, fifty five-ish, bald, sallow, in a short sleeved pale blue cotton shirt

[00:10:13] With one biro in the breast pocket

[00:10:13] A clerk maybe, slightly sunken in the seat

[00:10:13] "Venez!" He said again, and smiled

[00:10:13] "Mais j'ai pas de l'argent"

[00:10:13] "Oui, Oui, d'accord, Venez!"

[00:10:13] Are these the people that we should bomb

[00:10:13] Are we so sure they mean us harm

[00:10:13] Is this our pleasure, punishment or crime

[00:10:13] Is this a mountain that we really want to climb

[00:10:13] The road is hard, hard and long

[00:10:13] Put down that two by four

[00:10:13] This man would never turn you from his door

[00:10:13] Oh George! Oh George!

[00:10:13] That Texas education must have f**ked you up when you were very small

[00:10:13] He beckoned with a small arthritic motion of his hand

[00:10:13] Fingers together like a child waving goodbye

[00:10:13] The driver put my old Hofner guitar in the boot with my rucksack

[00:10:13] And off we went

[00:10:13] " Vous etes Francais, monsieur? "

[00:10:13] " Non, Anglais "

[00:10:13] " Ah! Anglais "

[00:10:13] " Est-ce que vous parlais Anglais, Monsieur? "

[00:10:13] "Non, je regrette"

[00:10:13] And so on

[00:10:13] In small talk between strangers, his French alien but correct

[00:10:13] Mine halting but eager to please

[00:10:13] A lift, after all, is a lift

[00:10:13] Late moustache left us brusquely

[00:10:13] And some miles later the dolmus slowed at a crossroads lit by a single lightbulb

[00:10:13] Swung through a you-turn and stopped in a cloud of dust

[00:10:13] I opened the door and got out

[00:10:13] But my benefactor made no move to follow

[00:10:13] The driver dumped my guitar and rucksack at my feet

[00:10:13] And waving away my thanks returned to the boot

[00:10:13] Only to reappear with a pair of alloy crutches

[00:10:13] Which he leaned against the rear wing of the Mercedes.

[00:10:13] He reached into the car and lifted my companion out

[00:10:13] Only one leg, the second trouser leg neatly pinned beneath a vacant hip

[00:10:13] " Monsieur, si vous voulez, ca sera un honneur pour nous

[00:10:13] Si vous venez avec moi a la maison pour manger avec ma femme "

[00:10:13] When I was 17 my mother, bless her heart, fulfilled my summer dream

[00:10:13] She handed me the keys to the car

[00:10:13] We motored down to Paris, fuelled with Dexedrine and booze

[00:10:13] Got bust in Antibes by the cops

[00:10:13] And fleeced in Naples by the wops

[00:10:13] But everyone was kind to us, we were the English dudes

[00:10:13] Our dads had helped them win the war

[00:10:13] When we all knew what we were fighting for

[00:10:13] But now an Englishman abroad is just a US stooge

[00:10:13] The bulldog is a poodle snapping round the scoundrel's last refuge

[00:10:13] "Ma femme", thank God! Monopod but not queer

[00:10:13] The taxi drove off leaving us in the dim light of the swinging bulb

[00:10:13] No building in sight

[00:10:13] What the hell

[00:10:13] "Merci monsieur"

[00:10:13] "Bon, Venez!"

[00:10:13] His faced creased in pleasure, he set off in front of me

[00:10:13] Swinging his leg between the crutches with agonising care

[00:10:13] Up the dusty side road into the darkness

[00:10:13] After half an hour we'd gone maybe half a mile

[00:10:13] When on the right I made out the low profile of a building

[00:10:13] He called out in Arabic to announce our arrival

[00:10:13] And after some scuffling inside a lamp was lit

[00:10:13] And the changing angle of light in the wide crack under the door

[00:10:13] Signalled the approach of someone within

[00:10:13] The door creaked open and there, holding a biblical looking oil lamp

[00:10:13] Stood a squat, moustached woman, stooped smiling up at us

[00:10:13] She stood aside to let us in and as she turned

[00:10:13] I saw the reason for her stoop

[00:10:13] She carried on her back a shocking hump

[00:10:13] I nodded and smiled back at her in greeting, fighting for control

[00:10:13] The gentleness between the one-legged man and his monstrous wife

[00:10:13] Almost too much for me

[00:10:13] Is gentleness too much for us

[00:10:13] Should gentleness be filed along with empathy

[00:10:13] We feel for someone else's child

[00:10:13] Every time a smart bomb does its sums and gets it wrong

[00:10:13] Someone else's child dies and equities in defence rise

[00:10:13] America, America, please hear us when we call

[00:10:13] You got hip-hop, be-bop, hustle and bustle

[00:10:13] You got Atticus Finch

[00:10:13] You got Jane Russell

[00:10:13] You got freedom of speech

[00:10:13] You got great beaches, wildernesses and malls

[00:10:13] Don't let the might, the Christian right, f**k it all up

[00:10:13] For you and the rest of the world

[00:10:13] They talked excitedly

[00:10:13] She went to take his crutches in routine of care

[00:10:13] He chiding, gestured

[00:10:13] We have a guest

[00:10:13] She embarrassed by her faux pas

[00:10:13] Took my things and laid them gently in the corner

[00:10:13] "do the?"

[00:10:13] We sat on meagre cushions in one corner of the single room

[00:10:13] The floor was earth packed hard and by one wall a raised platform

[00:10:13] Some six foot by four covered by a simple sheet, the bed

[00:10:13] The hunchback busied herself with small copper pots over an open hearth

[00:10:13] And brought us tea, hot and sweet

[00:10:13] And so to dinner

[00:10:13] Flat, unleavened bread, + thin

[00:10:13] Cooked in an iron skillet over the open hearth

[00:10:13] Then folded and dipped into the soft insides of female sea urchins

[00:10:13] My hostess did not eat, I ate her dinner

[00:10:13] She would hear of nothing else, I was their guest

[00:10:13] And then she retired behind a curtain

[00:10:13] And left the men to sit drinking thimbles full of Arak

[00:10:13] Carefully poured from a small bottle with a faded label

[00:10:13] Soon she reappeared, radiant

[00:10:13] Carrying in her arms their pride and joy, their child.

[00:10:13] I'd never seen a squint like that

[00:10:13] So severe that as one eye looked out the other disappeared behind its nose

[00:10:13] Not in my name, Tony, you great war leader you

[00:10:13] Terror is still terror, whosoever gets to frame the rules

[00:10:13] History's not written by the vanquished or the damned

[00:10:13] Now we are Genghis Khan, Lucretia Borghia, Son of Sam

[00:10:13] In 1961 they took this child into their home

[00:10:13] I wonder what became of them

[00:10:13] In the cauldron that was Lebanon

[00:10:13] If I could find them now, could I make amends?

[00:10:13] How does the story end?

[00:10:13] And so to bed, me that is, not them

[00:10:13] Of course they slept on the floor behind a curtain

[00:10:13] Whilst I lay awake all night on their earthen bed

[00:10:13] Then came the dawn and then their quiet stirrings

[00:10:13] Careful not to wake the guest

[00:10:13] I yawned in great pretence

[00:10:13] And took the proffered bowl of water heated up and washed

[00:10:13] And sipped my coffee in its tiny cup

[00:10:13] And then with much "merci-ing" and bowing and shaking of hands

[00:10:13] We left the woman to her chores

[00:10:13] And we men made our way back to the crossroads

[00:10:13] The painful slowness of our progress accentuated by the brilliant morning light

[00:10:13] The dolmus duly reappeared

[00:10:13] My host gave me one crutch and leaning on the other

[00:10:13] Shook my hand and smiled

[00:10:13] "Merci, monsieur," I said

[00:10:13] " De rien "

[00:10:13] " And merci a votre femme, elle est tres gentille "

[00:10:13] Giving up his other crutch

[00:10:13] He allowed himself to be folded into the back seat again

[00:10:13] "Bon voyage, monsieur," he said

[00:10:13] And half bowed as the taxi headed south towards the city

[00:10:13] I turned North, my guitar over my shoulder

[00:10:13] And the first hot gust of wind

[00:10:13] Quickly dried the salt tears from my young cheeks.