For a Reluctant Rifleman I once Knew ...

 

 

 

“I didn’t join the Army to kill.”
That’s what the soldier said.
“I joined to have a living.”
… And now a man is dead.

“You were only following orders.”
That’s what the M.O. said.
“You're a professional soldier.”
"So what? … now a man is dead."

They said he was my enemy:
A devil in disguise.
Now he’s dead he can’t harm me,
But what they said was lies!

He wasn't my enemy at all:
Just the wrong side of the line.
I wept then as I watched him fall.
"Take these pills and you'll be fine!"

I never knew the man I killed.
He didn’t say his name.
Unintroduced, his blood I spilled.
Now he’s dead ...
We're all to blame.

CT, 09/2013



 

 

Idumea

In explanation of, and atonement for, that previous post, the words of the prayer of St. Anley are a PARODY!

I have undertaken appropriate self-mortification.

I came across Idumea on a recording of the Watersons. (Frost and Fire; Topic; 1965.) They attribute the words to Charles Wesley. I question that credit. Certainly, with additional verses, it appears in The Methodist Church Hymnal, but did CW write it?

Subsequently it was used in a sacred-harp arrangement in the soundtrack to the film Cold Mountain. And that title, Idumea? ... It bears no immediately obvious relationship to the lyrics. Is that the title of the tune, or the hymn?

My transcription from the Watersons' recording is as follows:

And am I born to die;
To lay this body down?
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown?

A land of deepest shade,
Unpierced by human thought,
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot.

When from this Earth I go,
What will become of me?
Eternal happiness or pain
Shall then my fortune be.

And at the trumpet sound
I from my grave shall rise,
And see the Judge in glory crowned,
And see the flaming skies.

One Biblical reference appears to be Isaiah 34.5: “For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.”

Oh, dear ... !

Here's a Sacred Harp rendition:




Please understand that the introduction is not people vocalising ecstasy in synchronised glossolalia. Sacred Harp singers always begin with a 'fa-so-me-la-re' (in some semblance of order) run-through.

So, what/where is Idumea?

Historically it was a region of Judea.

Look out, here comes Charlton Heston portraying Moses. He's got those blessed stone tablets I told you about!

Oh, no ... wait ... it's Indiana Jones. He's seeking the Holy Grail!

(Don't worry, it's only my good friends, Ken and Mave, visiting Petra.)