Quest’anno si festeggiano i sessant’anni dalla nascita dello stato israeliano in Palestina. Vogliamo ricordare questo anniversario attraverso una canzone dedicata a Gerusalemme, città dai mille volti, simboli, significati. Una canzone tratta da Jesus Christ Superstar, un’opera tra le più significative della contestazione giovanile e sociale degli anni ’60 e ‘70. La canzone si intitola Poor Jerusalem; ve la proponiamo in lingua originale, in inglese, per salvaguardare l’intensità di un testo di notevole spessore. Un testo che riflette sul concetto stesso di potere e sul desiderio di amore e di fraternità, una delle utopie che da sempre accompagnano la storia umana. Un’utopia, e come tale, forse, irrealizzabile. Ma di certo una speranza. Intramontabile. Un modo per riflettere su quella terra, la Palestina, da sempre al centro di una storia complessa e contradditoria. Un modo per riflettere sul potere e sull’amore, attraverso il dialogo tra Simone, Gesù e la folla. Un’occasione per riscoprire un’opera, Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), unica nella storia della musica e del teatro.
Poor Jerusalem
(da Jesus Christ Superstar – 1973)
Crowd
Christ you know I love you
Did you see I waved?
I believe in you and God
So tell me that I’m saved
Jesus, I am with you
Touch me, touch me Jesus
Jesus, I am on your side
Kiss me, kiss me Jesus
Simon
What more do you need to convince you
That you have made it and you’re easily as strong
As the filth from Rome who raped our country
And who’ve terrorized our people for so long?
Chorus
Christ you know I love you
Did you see I waved?
I believe in you and God
So tell me that I’m saved
Jesus I am with you
Touch me, touch me Jesus
Jesus I am on your side
Kiss me, kiss me Jesus
Simon
There must be over fifty thousand
Screaming love and more for you
Everyone of fifty thousand
Would do whatever you ask him to
Keep them yelling their devotion
But add a touch of hate at Rome
You will rise to a greater power
We will win ourselves come home
You’ll get the power and the glory
For ever and ever and ever
You got the power and the glory
For ever and ever and ever
Amen! Amen!
Jesus
Neither you Simon, nor the fifty thousand
Nor the Romans, nor the Jews
Nor Judas, nor the twelve
Nor the priests, nor the scribes
Nor doomed Jerusalem itself
Understand what power is
Understand what glory is
Understand at all
Understand at all
If you knew all that I knew
My poor Jerusalem
You’d see the truth
But you’d close your eyes
But you’d close your eyes
While you live
Your troubles are many
Poor Jerusalem
To conquer death
You only have to die
You only have to die