matilda

歌詞

When I was a young man, I carried my pack I lived the free live of the rover From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback I waltzed my Matilda all over Then in Nineteen Fifteen my country said: "Son It's time to stop rambling There's work to be done They gave me a tin hat, a bayonet and gun And they sent me away to the war The band played 'Waltzing Matilda' As our ship pulled away from the quay And amidst all the cheers Flag-waving and tears We sailed off for Gallipoli How well I remember that terrible day Our blood stained the sand and the water And how in that hell that was called Suvla Bay We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter Johnny Turk, he was ready, he'd trained himself well He rained us with bullets, he shot us with shell In five minutes flat, he blew us to hell He nearly blew us right back to Australia The band played 'Waltzing Matilda' As we stopped to burry our slain We burried ours The Turks buried theirs Then we started all over again Now those who were living, just tried to survive In that mad world of blood, death and fire And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive While around me the corpses piled higher Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head When I woke up in my hospital bed I saw what it had done and I wished I was dead I never knew there were worse things than dying For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda All around the green bush far and near To hump tent and pegs A man needs both legs No more waltzing Matilda for me They collected the cripples, the wounded and maimed And shipped us back home to Australia The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane The proud wounded heroes of Suvla And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay I looked at the place where my legs used to be And thanked Christ there was no one there waiting for me To grieve, to mourn and to pity Still the band played 'Waltzing Matilda' As they carried us down the gangway Nobody cheered They just stood there and stared Then they turned all their faces away So now every April I sit on my porch See the parades pass before me I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march Reliving their dreams of past glory I see the old men, all bent stiff and sore The tired old heroes of a forgotten war And the young people ask: "What's are they marching for?" And I ask myself the same question Aye, the band plays 'Waltzing Matilda' And the old men still answer the call Year by year Their number get fewer Someday no one will march there at all Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me? Now their ghosts can be heard As they march by the billabong Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?