7.7.05

The city's darkened now

Há ocasiões em que é melhor recorrer às palavras dos outros -e, eventualmente, à música. Esta é uma delas. Então, vamos ouvir sir Noël Coward cantar. Quem quiser clique na nota aí embaixo.






"London Pride" foi composta e gravada em 1941, em outra época de escuridão. Segue a letra, para quem quiser acompanhar.

London pride has been handed down to us
London pride is a flower that's free
London pride means our own dear town to us
And our pride it forever will be

Oh, Liza, see the coster barrows
The vegetable marrows and the fruit piled high
Oh, Liza, little london sparrows
Covent Garden market where the costers cry
Cockney feet mark the beat of history
Every street pins a memory down
Nothing ever can quite replace
The grace of London town

There's a little city flower every spring unfailing
Growing in the crevices by some London railing
Though it has a latin name in town and countryside
We in England call it London Pride

London pride has been handed down to us
London pride is a flower that's free
London pride means our own dear town to us
And our pride it forever will be

Hey, lady, when the day is dawning
See the p'liceman yawning on his lonely beat
Gay lady, Mayfair in the morning
Hear your footsteps echo in the empty street
Early rain and the pavement's glistening
All Park Lane in a shimmering gown
Nothing ever could break or harm
The charm of London town

In our city darkened now, street and square and crescent
We can feel our living past in our shadowed present
Ghosts beside our starlit Thames who lived and loved and died
Keep throughout the ages London pride

London pride has been handed down to us
London pride is a flower that's free
London pride means our own dear town to us
And our pride it forever will be

Grey city, stubbornly implanted
Taken so for granted for a thousand years
Stay, city, smokily enchanted
Cradle of our memories, our hopes and fears
Every blitz your resistance toughening
From the Ritz to the Anchor and Crown
Nothing ever could override
The pride of London town