Song Of Those Who Died In Vain Lyrics - Manic Street Preachers

(Primo Levi [1919 - 1987]) 

Sit down and bargain 

All you like grizzled old foxes 

We'll wall you up in a splendid palace 

With food, wine, good beds and a good fire 

Provided that you discuss, negotiate 

For our and your children's lives 

May all the wisdom of the universe 

Converge to bless your minds 

And guide you in the maze 

But outside in the cold we will be waiting for you 

The army of those who died in vain 

We of the Marne, of Montecassino 

Treblinka, Dresden and Hiroshima 

And with us will be 

The leprous and the people with trachoma 

The disappeared ones of Buenos Aires 

Dead Cambodians and dying Ethiopians 

The Prague negotiatiors 

The bled dry of Calcutta 

The innocents slaughtered in Bologna 

Heaven help you if you come out disagreeing 

You'll be clutched tight in our embrace 

We are invincible because we are the conquered 

Invulnerable because already dead 

We laugh at your missiles 

Sit down and bargain 

Until your tongues are dry 

If the havoc and the shame continue 

We'll drown you in our putrefaction 

Primo Levi 

14th January 1985 

Poem published by Faber & Faber Ltd. 

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