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Memory of the second world war;from



Reply-To: Phd_ Ni Ni <nin@xxxxxx>
Subject: Memory of the second world war;from NFB 


          THE MESSAGE is that this poem spoke about Jews, but she thinks 
it also applies to many ethnic groups of people and others who are 
being suppressed like Burmese people today. By sending this poem she calls 
for the support from everybody in general and all European Nations in 
particular. 
                     

Refugee Blues (published in 1940) by W.H. Auden
----------------------------------------------- 

*Say this city has ten million souls,
 Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes;
 Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.

*Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
 Look in the atlas and you'll find it there;
 We can never go there now, my dear, we can never go there now.

*The consul banged the table and said:
 'If you have no passport, you're officially dead';
 But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.

*Down in the churchyard there stands an old yew,
 Every spring it flowers anew;
 Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passport can't do that.

*Went to a committee; they offered me a chair,
 Told me politely to come back next year;
 But where shall we go today, my dear, but where shall we go today? 

*Came to a public meeting: the speaker got up and said:
 'If we let him in, they will steal our daily bread';
 He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.
 
*Heard a noise like thunder rumbling in the sky,
 It was Hitler over Europe saying, 'They must die!'
 O we are in his mind, my dear, O we are in his mind.

*Saw a poodle in a jacket, fastened with a pin,
 Saw a door open and a cat let in:
 But they weren't German Jews, my dear, they weren't German Jews.

*Went down to the harbour and stood upon the quay,
 Saw the fish swimming as if they were free;
 Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.

*Walked into a wood; there were birds in the trees,
 They had no politicians and sang at their ease;
 They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.

*Dreamt I saw a building with a thousand floors,
 A thousand windows and a thousand doors;
 Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.

*Ran down to the station to catch the express,
 Asked for two tickets to Happiness;
 But every coach was full, my dear, but every coach was full.

*Stood on a great plain in the falling snow,
 Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro;
 Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.
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