Discussion about this post

User's avatar
JustPlainBill's avatar

Believe it or not, the West also has heartfelt songs about war. Two of my favorites are "Flowers of the Forest" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TtgSbNaksg) and "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg). The latter sings about the "lucky" Australians who survived the train wreck of Gallipoli in WW I and managed to return home, but who were all broken up and whose lives would never really go back to normal again. I also once saw a film on this same subject, the name of which escapes me, and it also was quite powerful.

"So now every April,

I sit on my porch,

And I watch the parade pass before me.

I see my old comrades,

How proudly they march.

Renewing their dreams of past glories

I see the old men, all tired, stiff and sore

The weary old heroes of a forgotten war

And the young people ask,

What are they marching for?

And I ask myself the same question."

When I listen to that song again, I realize that it could just as easily be singing about many other "lucky" survivors of all the other wars we've had since. Just to grab an obvious example, consider those few "lucky" Ukrainians who survive to return home all broken up, missing limbs (reports are that a huge number of amputations have been done), shell-shocked, you name it. The ones who sent them don't even care if they survive, let alone win, as long as it wears down Russia a bit.

A lot of great literature and song came out of the years just after WW I, and much of it is so powerful that when listening to the songs, reading the books, or watching the films, you truly feel like they are saying they really learned something from all that industrial slaughter. But yet here we are over a century later, and it keeps getting worse and worse.

Expand full comment
Dan Duffy's avatar

Hi all, just a note to draw attention to Linh's selection from his 7 books of poems, collected as Blue Threads to the Soul. I wrote a brief review at the book's Amazon page citing 2 poems and 1 interview, and a long one with a dozen extracts and photographs of the book at Viet Nam letters, my Substack. 116 of my 117 subscribers read it on pasting last Thursday, then another 45 since announcing the letter at the listserv of the Vietnamese Studies Group. I expect 1 reader at a time to walk in for a while, petering out approaching 200 total. Join in or, you know, just read the book.

Expand full comment
22 more comments...

No posts