Marios Frangoulis: Kemal (song about Kemal Ataturk)

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the Nero of the 20th century. He was a Turkish army officer and revolutionist statesman who made the genocide of the Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians. Also, he was the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey; known most of his life as Mustafa Kemal, he was given the name Ataturk (which means Father of the Nation) by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in 1934. This is a song about him.

KEMAL

Listen to the story of Kemal
a young prince of the East
descendant of Sinbad the Sailor
who thought he could change the world.
But bitter is the will of Allah
and dark the souls of men.
In the lands of the East once upon a time
the purse was empty and the water stale.
In Mosul and Bushehr on the old coconut tree
the children of the desert now cry bitter tears.
And a young man of an old and royal line
hears the lament and grows near.
the Bedouins look at him sadly
and he gives them an oath in Allah's name, that times will change.
When the lords heard of the lad's fearlessness
they set out with wolf's teeth and lion's skin
from Tigris to Euphrates, from the earth to the heavens
they hunt for the deserter, to capture him alive.
The horde descends upon him like rabid dogs
and takes him to the Caliph to place the noose [on his neck]
black honey and black milk he drank that morning
before he breathed his last on the gallows.
The Prophet awaits before the Gates of Heaven
with two elderly camels and a red horse.
They now go hand in hand and it's cloudy
but the star of Damascus kept them company.
In a month and a year they see Allah before them
and from his high throne he says to the simple Sinbad:
"my beaten smart-aleck, times do not change,
the world always moves on by fire and blades"
Goodnight Kemal, this world will never change.
Goodnight...