Natalia

(R. Apps, G. Moore, Suscha)

0:50

It is because of people like Natalia Gorbanevskaya, I am convinced, that you and I are still alive and walking around on the face of the earth.

1:01

Weaver of words
Who lives alone
In fear and sorrow,
Where are the words
To set you free
Perhaps to-morrow?

   Where is the earth
   Where is the sky
   Where is the light you long for?
   What hope have you
   Where you are now
   Natalia Gorbanevskaïa?

Inside the ward
Naked and cruel
Where life is stolen
From those who try
To stay alive
And not be broken

   Where are the friends
   Where are the men
   Who among them can defend you?
   Where is the child
   You'll never see
   Natalia Gorbanevskaïa?

What is there left
Behind the door
That never opens?
Are you insane
As they say you are
Or just forsaken?

   Are you still there
   Do you still care
   Or are you lost for ever?
   I know this song
   You’ll never hear
   Natalia Gorbanevskaïa
   Natalia Gorbanevskaia

***

what Roman wrote in My Life is a Novel (http://www.antebiel.com/EN/roman/G5_J1.html)

Shusha Guppy

Shusha (in the photo with sailor Alain Bombard and myself, at the Villeneuve/Lot Book Fair) is a singer with a very pure voice, born in Persia (she has written her memoires) and I knew her when I was writing Droit d’Asiles en Union Sovietique (« The Right of Asylums in the Soviet Union ») : she dedicated one of her most moving songs to dissident Natalia Gorbanevskaia who was sent to a mental hospital merely for being one of the six demonstrators against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet troops, at Red Square, on the 25th of August 1968. Once more (it has already appeared in my book) I transcribe here the superb words of Shusha’s song, so well interpretated by Joan Baez and, then, by Shusha herself : 

Weaver of words, who lives alone, in fear and sorrow,
Where is the world that set you free perhaps to-morrow?
Where is the earth, where is the sky, where is the light
You long for ?
What hope have you where you are now,
Natalia Gorbanevskaïa?

Inside the ward, naked and cruel, where life is stolen
From those who try to stay alife and still be human
Where are the friends, where are the men, who among them
Can defend you?
Where is the child you never see, 
Natalia Gorbanevskaïa?

What is there left, behind the door, that never opens?
Are you insane, as they say you are, or just forsaken?
Are you still there, do you still care, or are you lost for ever?
I know this song, you’ll never hear,
Natalia Gorbanevskaïa?