| I told them we heard singing first before we reached the Square
|
| «Arise the wretched of the earth» filled the air
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| So many fists clenched to the sky we couldn’t count them all
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| But then the sea of weeping washed over the Hall
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| I told them no one saw me, there was no one who would know
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| I was an army soldier dressed in students clothes
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| Between the smoking bonfires we held our rifles high
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| As the ashes of the banners soared into the sky
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| Ah, I was seventeen that spring
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| Ah, we were just obeying orders
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| Ah, I still see everything
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| Through the factory’s yellow windows
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| In the dirty stinking river
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| In the messages that find you then vanish in the ether
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| They vanish in the ether:
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| I told them not to fear me but history tells the tale
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| The artists and the poets fill up every jail
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| Before I held a rifle I held an artist’s brush
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| Before Tiananmen I even dreamed of love
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| Ah, I was seventeen that spring
|
| Ah, we were just obeying orders
|
| Ah, I still see everything
|
| Through the factory’s yellow windows
|
| In the dirty stinking river
|
| In the messages that found me, then vanished in the ether
|
| In the messages that found me:
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| I told them they’d see me walking in the rain
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| In Budapest, in Prague, in Soweto’s lanes
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| Between the burning oil drums and the graffiti on the wall
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| I told them, yes I told them, I told them all
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| Ah, I was seventeen that spring
|
| Ah, we were just obeying orders
|
| Ah, and I still see everything
|
| Through the factory’s yellow windows
|
| In the dirty stinking river
|
| In the messages that find us, then vanish in the ether
|
| Oh the messages will find us, then vanish in the ether |