Luyện nghe bài hát AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA

"And The Band Played Matilda"
- Eric

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

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

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

For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda, all the green bush far and free
To hump tent and pegs, a man needs legs-no more waltzing Matilda for me.
So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed, and they shipped us home to Australia.
The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane, those proud heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay, I at the place where me legs used to be.
And thanked Christ was nobody 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 stood and stared, then they turned all their faces away
And so now every April, I sit on me porch, and I watch the parades pass me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march, reviving old dreams of past
And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore. They're tired old from a forgotten war
And the people ask, what are they marching for? And I ask myself the same question.

But the band plays 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 Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by that billabong, who'll come Matilda with me?

"Matilda" - the and associated gear used by livestock drovers and prospecters
in remote areas of the outback.
"Swag" - sleeping bag
"Billabong" - or estuary, generally with an outlet 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 Zealand
unsuccessfully attempted an of Turkey.
The action was confined to the Dardanelles
and the tip of the Gallipoli (Gelibolu) near
Istanbul. The purpose of the campaign, by British
munitions minister David George, first lord of the
admiralty Winston Churchill, Herbert H. Kitchener,
and Admiral H. Carden, was to open up a new
of war as an alternative to the stalemate in
France, to relieve pressure on Russian forces
in the Caucasus, and, by gaining control of
and the straits, to provide a direct with Russia
via the Black Sea. campaign is also significant
for Australians in it marked the first time a major
Australian military force was by Australian,
of English, officers.

What initially was to be a naval operation
failed in February when several British and French
were damaged by floating mines. A land invasion was
then on, but it was not begun until late April.
An amphibious at that time was met with heavy
resistance by the Turks. caution and timorous
leadership by the commander, Sir Ian Hamilton,
resulted in lost initiatives. Little headway
was beyond the several beachheads. In early August,
after three of stalemate and stagnation on the
beaches, a new offensive was begun. Once again,
however, the caution and indifferent leadership
of the British command offset the effect of
reinforcements. The Turkish forces, on the hand, were
by the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Atatrk,
later of Turkey) and the skill of their German
commander, Otto Liman von Sanders. After a few months
of stalemate, Hamilton was replaced by Sir Monro,
who was sent to the situation. Monro recommended
evacuation, and the allied were withdrawn in December
and January. casualties were 205,000 out of 410,000;
the French a rate 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 Gallipoli
weakened the Turks enough to facilitate the British
of Palestine in 1917. The also distracted the Germans
from a plan they had in 1915 to another offensive in France.