Il panorama di Betlemme

A man wounded in the back
crawls across the sand
And he feels the earth that calls him
feels the night about to fall
And he says Lord I beg you
let me breathe
let me rest a while
before I have to die
And he says Lord do you see
this bothersome fly
that flies over my back
and still won’t settle down

A man lying on the ground
in a frontier land
Who looks at the riverbank
slowly turning black
And he says it wasn’t my intention
to steal the bread tree
But I’m not the kind of man
who surrenders without a fight
And now give back my ranks
return to me my command
Because this fly keeps buzzing around
while my blood is draining out

And meanwhile the shadows lengthen
and cover up the clearing
The armies rest
at the end of the day
And the man who is dying
tries to take off his boots
And he says Lord, flies
shouldn’t have wings
And he says Lord do you see
the panorama of Bethlehem
This sky without shelter
this curtain of flames