1. |
Fatima's Lady Macbeth
04:45
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Summer is come and the Scottish play’s coming to town
The sun may be up but as usual budgets are down
Don’t you know art is a luxury, music will make you a fool?
Things that we always forget to remember at our little school
Well year six are ready they’ve dressed themselves well for the night
And soldiers and witches and spirits they stand in the light
In hand-me-down riches like sails on the sea, like the points of a star
Aflame like a phalanx of brave refugees – which some of them are
And Fatima’s Lady Macbeth is wringing her hands, stalking the stage
Now this is no man’s synecdoche, no master’s castle of sand, this is our age
All have their exits and entrances, all have a dose of her rage, playing their roles
Here at today’s matinée of the perfect free movement of souls
Fatima runs up the corridor, furrows her brow
She has to learn so many lines and she doesn’t see how
She loves how when all others falter her lady has courage of heart
And it turns out that ten years in Yorkshire prepared her quite well for the part
Then Rag'n'Bone’s “Human” blasts out through our little PA
And Hansa – who’s playing our Banquo - has plenty to say
She tells, though her body’s destroyed still her spirit’s beginning to move
And I can’t help but feel that our hero of Stratford would surely approve
Of Fatima’s Lady Macbeth, wringing her hands, stalking the stage
Now this is no man’s synecdoche, no master’s castle of sand, this is our age
All have their exits and entrances, all have a dose of her rage, playing their roles
Here at today’s matinée of the perfect free movement of souls
Now summer is gone and it’s back to the business of school
For acting’s a hobby and music will make you a fool
Save it for something important, your money, your weapons of war
But Fatima’s Lady Macbeth is still stalking the floor
And Fatima’s classmates are sure to remember their lines
As hand-me-down poets, they’ve armed themselves well for these times
They shine like the summer, like sails on the sea, like the points of a star
Aflame like a phalanx of brave refugees, which is just what they are
And Fatima’s Lady Macbeth is wringing her hands, licking her wounds
Now this is no man’s synecdoche, no master’s castle of sand, this is my England
All have their exits and entrances, all have a dose of her rage, playing their roles
Here at today’s matinée of the perfect free movement of souls
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2. |
Wordless Lullaby
03:55
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Down by the water
I heard a woman, and she was singing lullabies
‘til hope ignited, as old as iron
Young as damsel flies
Home at my mother’s, I was a poet
Out on the ocean I was strong
Words, hard and heady
Like mountain salt
Like pepper on the tongue
But now I sing fa la la la la
As I remember kissing your father
Before the ocean’s modulation of all our lullabies
This migration’s wordless lullaby
Oh great composer
Who, like a lover
Turns heartbreak’s silence into sighs
I now decipher
The moonlit meaning of your symphonies
A mother singing
A bonfire burning
A sky of bees, a sky of birds
That seamless turning
Life into music, music into words
And so I sing fa la la la la
As I remember kissing their father
Before the battle’s transposition of all our lullabies
Mistranslation’s wordless lullaby
Oh, great composer down by the water
We do not need one mother tongue
But a patterned nation
Of ideations longing for the sun
My poet sister, down by the water
We are both singing, you and I
To raise our daughters:
These planted verses longing for the sky
And so we sing fa la la la la
As we remember kissing their fathers
Before the ocean’s modulation of all our lullabies
This migration’s wordless lullaby
And so I sing fa la la la la
As I remember kissing your father
Before the battle’s transposition of all our lullabies
This translation’s wordless lullaby
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Nancy Kerr Sheffield, UK
Folk Singer of the Year BBC Folk Awards 2015
"Outstanding chamber folk" (The
Guardian) "Folk's Poet Laureate" (FRUK) "One of the UK’s foremost composers of modern folk and social commentary songs” (Royal Shakespeare Company).
Photo credits: James Fagan, Elly Lucas
Album design: Lizzy Doe
... more
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