Friday, July 11, 2014

This land is mine

I found this beautiful animation somewhere on Facebook and followed the link up to Vimeo. It is “A brief history of the land called Israel/Palestine/Canaan/the Levant.”



You can find a “Who’s Killing Who? A Viewer’s Guide” on the creator's blog.

The animation is quite nice, and it illustrates quite well the endless killings that this region have known since ancient history (although I would like to point out that it has also known long periods of peace)… It's rather actual.

As far as I could gathered, the score was written in 1960 by Ernest Gold for the movie Exodus (dir. by Otto Preminger and based on Leon Uris' book of the same title) and the lyrics were added the following year by Pat Boone to create “This land is mine.” It was also interpreted (among others) by Andy Williams, Ferrante and Teicher, Mantovani, Eddie Harris and Edith Piaf.

Pat Boone lyrics of “This land is mine:”

This land is mine.
God gave this land to me.
This brave and ancient land to me.
And when the morning sun reveals her hills and plains.
Then I see a land where children can run free.
So take my hand and walk this land with me.
And walk this lovely land with me.

Tho' I am just a man
when you are by my side
with the help of God
I know I can be strong.
So take my hand and walk this land with me.
And walk this golden land with me.

Tho' I am just a man
when you are by my side
with the help of God I know I can be strong.
To make this land our home,
if I must fight,
I'll fight to make this land our own.
Until I die this land is mine!


Strangely, the french lyrics sang by Edith Piaf with the simple title “Exodus,” are quite different (but also beautiful and more appropriate for the movie itself):

Ils sont partis dans un soleil d'hiver
Ils sont partis courir la mer
Pour effacer la peur
Pour écraser la peur
Que la vie a clouée au fond du coeur

Ils sont partis en croyant aux moissons
Du vieux pays de leurs chansons
Le coeur chantant d'espoir
Le coeur hurlant d'espoir
Ils ont repris le chemin de leur mémoire

Ils ont pleuré les larmes de la mer
Ils ont versé tant de prières :
"Délivrez-nous, nos frères !
Délivrez-nous, nos frères !"
Que leurs frères les ont tirés vers la lumière

Ils sont là-bas dans un pays nouveau
Qui flotte au mât de leur bateau
Le coeur brisé d'amour
Le coeur perdu d'amour
Ils ont retrouvé la terre de l'amour.


It roughly translates as:

They left in a winter sun
They went running the sea
To erase the fear
To crush the fear
That life has nailed into their heart

They left believing the harvest
Of the old country of their songs
Their heart singing of hope
Their heart screaming of hope
They have gone back to their memory

They cried tears of the sea
They poured so many prayers:
"Deliver us, our brothers!
Deliver us, our brothers! "
That their brothers brought them into the light

They are there in a new country
That floats their boat mast
Their heart broken by love
The heart lost by love
They found the land of love.

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