La colombe
Collins Judy Lyrics

Why all these bugles crying for squads of young men drilled
Why are there so many bugles crying out, signaling the marching of young soldiers who have been trained to kill and be killed?

To kill and to be killed and waiting by this train?
Why are they being put on this train, waiting to go to war and engage in killing and potentially facing their own death?

Why the orders loud and hoarse, why the engine's groaning cough
Why are the orders being yelled out with such urgency and the train engine groaning under the weight of all the soldiers on board?

As it strains to drag us off into the holocaust?
Why is the train straining to take all the soldiers away to a place of destruction and mass death?

Why crowds who sing and cry, and shout and fling us flowers
Why are there people in crowds singing and crying, cheering and throwing flowers at the soldiers, giving up their right to live and instead allowing others to murder and die?

And trade their right for ours to murder and to die?
Why are these crowds giving up their own right to live and instead allowing soldiers to trade that right for the ability to kill and potentially die?

The dove has torn her wings so no more songs of love
There can no longer be songs of love because the symbol of peace, the dove, has lost her ability to fly and soar freely.

We are not here to sing, we're here to kill the dove
The soldiers are not here to sing songs of love, but are instead here to engage in violence and tear apart the symbol of peace.

Why has this moment come when childhood has to die
Why must childhood and innocence be lost in a moment like this, where violence and death become inevitable?

When hope shrinks to a sigh and speech into a drum?
In this moment, hope seems to fade away and all that is left is a solemn drum beat and the sound of war coming closer.

Why are they pale and still, young boys trained overnight
Why do these young boys seem so unnaturally still and pale, after being trained and prepared for war so quickly?

Conscripts forced to fight and dressed in gray to kill?
These young men have been drafted and forced to fight, dressed in gray and given the tools necessary to take another person's life.

These rain clouds massing tight, this train load battle bound
The dark clouds gathering overhead symbolize the impending doom and the train carries all the soldiers to their place of combat.

This moving burial ground sent thundering toward the night
The train full of soldiers represents a mobile graveyard, hurtling towards the night and towards their inevitable death.

Why statues towering brave above the last defeat
Why do we erect statues to commemorate previous wars and their valiant heroes who lost their lives?

Old word and lies repeat across the new made grave?
The same old rhetoric and lies seem to be repeated over the fresh graves of new soldiers, who have died in vain.

Why the same still birth that victory always brought
Why does every victory in war seem to bring about a sense of stillbirth, leaving behind devastation and destruction?

These hoards of glory bought by men with mouths of earth?
The glory from war is often bought by those in power, who use their persuasive words to convince others to engage in violence.

Dead ash without a spark where cities glittered bright
After war, what remains are only ashes and ruins, where once there were bustling cities full of life and light.

For guns probe every light and crush it in the dark
The violence of war destroys everything in its path, leaving nothing but darkness and death behind.

And why your face undone with jagged lines of tears
Why is your face contorted with painful tears, as we speak of war and the loss it brings?

That gave in those first years all peace I ever won?
In those early years of our love, we found peace and happiness, but war has shattered that peace and brought only pain and tears.

Your body in the gloom, the platform fading back
As the train pulls away, I watch as your body fades into the darkness, left standing on the platform.

Your shadow on the track, a flower on a tomb
The shadow of your body on the tracks symbolizes the potential for your own death, like a flower left on a grave.

And why these days ahead when I must let you cry
Why must we continue to endure these days filled with tears and sorrow, and why must I allow you to cry?

And live prepared to die as if our love were dead?
Why must we live as though our love is already gone, as we face the possibility of death and destruction in war?