Luyện nghe bài hát AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA

"And The Band Played Matilda"
- Bogle

Now when I was a young man, I carried me pack, and I lived the life of a rover
From the Murray's green to the dusty outback, well, I waltzed my Matilda all over.
Then in 1915, my country son, It's time you stopped rambling, there's work to be done.
So gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun, and they marched me away to the war.

And the band played Matilda, as the ship pulled away from the quay
And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears, we off for Gallipoli
And how well I remember terrible day, how our blood stained the sand and the water
And of how in hell that they called Suvla Bay, we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk he was waiting, he'd primed well. He shower'd us with bullets,
And he rained us with shell. And in five minutes flat, he'd us all to hell
Nearly blew us back to Australia.

But the band Waltzing Matilda, when we stopped to bury our slain.
We ours, and the Turks buried theirs, then we started all over again.
And those that were left, well we tried to survive, in that mad of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks, I kept alive, though around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me over head, and when I woke up in my hospital bed,
And saw what it had done, well I wished I was dead. Never knew there was things than dyin'.

For I'll go no waltzing Matilda, all around the green bush far and free
To hump tent and pegs, a man needs both more waltzing Matilda for me.
So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed, and they shipped us back to Australia.
The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane, proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay, I looked at the where me legs used to be.
And thanked Christ there was waiting for me, to grieve, to mourn, and to pity.

But the band Waltzing Matilda, as they carried us down the gangway.
But nobody cheered, they just and stared, then they turned all their faces away
And so now every April, I sit on me porch, and I watch the parades before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march, old dreams of past glories
And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore. tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the people ask, what are they marching for? And I ask myself the same question.

But the plays Waltzing Matilda, and the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear. Someday no one march there at all.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, who'll come a-waltzing with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by that billabong, who'll a-waltzing Matilda with me?

"Matilda" - the backpack and gear used by livestock drovers and prospecters
in areas of the Australian outback.
"Swag" - canvas bag
"Billabong" - creek or estuary, generally with an to the sea and containing more or less brackish water.

Note:
The Gallipoli (April 25, 1915-January 8, 1916),
a land and sea operation of World War I, in which
British, French, Australian, and New forces
unsuccessfully attempted an of Turkey.
The action was to the Dardanelles Strait
and the tip of the (Gelibolu) Peninsula near
Istanbul. The of the campaign, devised by British
munitions minister David George, first lord of the
Winston Churchill, General Herbert H. Kitchener,
and Admiral Sackville H. Carden, was to up a new
theater of war as an to the stalemate in
France, to relieve Turkish pressure on forces
in the Caucasus, and, by gaining control of
and the straits, to provide a direct link with
via the Sea. This campaign is also significant
for Australians in that it the first time a major
Australian military was commanded by Australian,
of English, officers.

What was to be exclusively a naval operation
failed in February 1915 when several and French
ships were damaged by floating mines. A land was
then decided on, but it was not begun until April.
An amphibious landing at that time was met heavy
resistance by the Turks. caution and timorous
leadership by the commander, Sir Ian Hamilton,
resulted in several lost initiatives. Little
was made beyond the several beachheads. In August,
three months of stalemate and stagnation on the
beaches, a new major offensive was begun. again,
however, the caution and indifferent leadership
of the command offset the effect of heavy
reinforcements. The forces, on the other hand, were
inspired by the of Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Atatrk,
later president of Turkey) and the skill of German
commander, Otto von Sanders. After a few more months
of stalemate, Hamilton was by Sir Charles Monro,
who was sent to the situation. Monro recommended
evacuation, and the allied forces withdrawn in December
and January. British were 205,000 out of 410,000;
the French sustained a of 47,000 out of 79,000; Turkish,
250,000 to 300,000 out of 500,000. The badly
the reputations of Churchill, Hamilton, and Kitchener.
Despite its overall failure, however, the campaign
the Turks enough to facilitate the British seizure
of Palestine in 1917. The action also distracted the
from a plan had in 1915 to begin another offensive in France.