Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.

Once we had a country and we thought it fair, Look in the atlas and you'll find it there: We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.(...)

Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said; 'If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread': He was talking of you and me, my dear he was talking of you and me.

Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky; It was Hitler over Europe, saying: 'They must die': O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.

Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin, Saw a door opened and a cat let in: But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.(...)

Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors, A thousand windows and a thousand doors: Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.

Stood on a great plain in the falling snow; Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro; Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.

Den engelske poeten W.H. Auden skrev "Refugee Blues" 1939 - ett år som bara de senaste dagarna blivit aktuellt igen.

Jag vet inte vad för sorts profetiskt förmåga de har, men på den nya CDn "The Well's on Fire" som kommer ut om exakt tio dagar, tolkar Procol Harum Audens flyktingpoem - en låt som de började spela förra våren.

När Gary Brooker och Keith Reid (som själv är av judisk familj) tolkar den har titeln blivit "An old English dream". De mest tidsbundna stroferna, med referenserna till Hitler, är strukna, vilket gör perspektivet mer allmängiltigt och spelrummet för egna tolkningar större. Och när Keith Reid böjer Auden till "I saw a broken-down building with ten thousand doors" blir det omöjligt att inte tänka på World Trade center.

Lyssna på An old English dream via Real Audio (Om länken inte fungerar, gå till Eagle records sajt och välj Procol Harum från dropdown-menyn.)
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