Vietnam/ cold war 2

[Alicja]

Hello,

For Monday, I'd like you to listen a few times to this song by Bob Dylan www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9YaAY0ja_c    

1. The he first time round, try to listen to it without reading lyrics. Try to understand as much as you can just by focusing on what Dylan sings.
   
   
   2. The second time you listen to the song, you can look at the lyrics: www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/hard-rains-gonna-fall
   
   3. The song if full of striking images. Choose 3 that speak to you the most and in two/ three sentences tell us why (post below).

We'll talk about this song and Dylan more in our next class.

If there are words you don't understand, look them up in a monolingual dictionary.

See you on Monday!

[Santiago Fernández]

The 3 images that speak to me the most are:

• “I met a young child beside a dead pony”
The image I see is a little child whose all his dreams are lost or dead.
It's sad because a little child without dreams is a little child without objectives, without future.

• “I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it”
The image that I see is that of an attacker, with all the tools for the war, stalking to an enemy who is totally unarmed and with absolutely no experience to fight or to defend itself.

• “Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley”
The image that I see is the informants saying that everything is going well still knowing that the things were not good. The managers of giving the information hide the face in order that the people don't realize of the reality of the situation.

[Célia Hérou]

-> “I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children”:
I find this image very hard because a child is the symbol of innocence, he doesn’t have to know what a weapon is and what a war is. It shows the horror of what happen in Vietnam.

-> “Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’”:
This sentence makes us think about the injustice of people towards other people who were in difficulty, in poverty. It shows that people take care of themselves without considering other people who could need help.

-> “I met a white man who walked a black dog”:
What said Bob Dylan is shocking because what we understand through those words it’s that white people would be “superior” to the black people, they were their boss and it’s something inconceivable. It’s like slavery so it’s a unthinkable situation.

[Hugo Lucas]

. "I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard"
This sentence is in the first verse. I find this image is very efficient. It shows the confrontation have a soldier everyday during a war : the death. The soldier walk in the mouth of the death and he doesn't know if it eat him or it consume him.

. "I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest"
This sentence is in the fourth verse. In this verse Bob Dylan speak about soldier when he come back home after the war. And this image explain the soldier's psychology. The deepest forest represent a eternal nightmare have the soldier that he can't leave.

. "Where the people are many and their hands are all empty"
This image is in connection with the last I chose. I like it because it shows the distress of soldier when he come back home. He is in deepest forest where he can't leave and anybody can't help him. It's a well know aftereffect where the soldier come back home but the war is not finish for him.

[Caroline Dubois]

~ “I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard”:
In this sentence, we can imagine the damage caused by the war. In fact, there was so much dead body everywhere that it was almost like a cemetery. Although they walked, soldiers were devoured as the war has intensified.

~ ”I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children”:
Here, Bono associate children to guns. He reminds us the hard reality of child soldier. Childhood refers to the period of time for which children can be express themselves and dream. But with this violence, it is not possible.

~ “I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’[…] But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’”:
This sentence encourage people to go out of their house to experience their own lives, see by their own eyes to realize the horror of this Vietnam war. They will be about to speak to what they feel and not to prejudices. This end of this song prompts people to make more discerning on reality.

[Fabien Virot]

->"And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall"
This image is very hard because the "hard rain" symbolise a bomb rain or radioactive fallout.I think this sentence is repeated five times because the "rain" is the cause of all the song.

->"I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken"
I choose this sentence because during a war people can't says what they think and nowadays the freedom of expression is problem in many countries.

->"Where the executioner's face is always well hidden"
This sentence show's that people who commit crimes are always hide. People who gives orders are hidden and reject the fault.

[Caroline Dubois]

~ “I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard”:
In this sentence, we can imagine the damage caused by the war. In fact, there was so much dead body everywhere that it was almost like a cemetery. Although they walked, soldiers were devoured as the war has intensified.

~ ”I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children”:
Here, Bob Dylan associate children to guns. He reminds us the hard reality of child soldier. Childhood refers to the period of time for which children can be express themselves and dream. But with this violence, it is not possible.

~ “I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’ […]But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’”:
This sentence encourage people to go out of their house to experience their own lives, see by their own eyes to realize the horror of this Vietnam war. They will be about to speak to what they feel and not to prejudices. This end of this song prompts people to make more discerning on reality.

[Pauline Legallet]

- "I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken"
Throught this sentence we can understand that people where not allow to express themself. They were deprived of their freedom of expression.

-"I met a young child beside a dead pony"
Here, we can imagine the horror and the damage of the war. Children were orphaned and exposed to cruel scenes. This image is very violent and make me feel uncomfortable. A child is a symbole of purity and innocence who need to be protected but here everythink is broken.

-"Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten"
This sentence show that everyone is hurt and that there is no more hope. Terror is the only thing that remains.

[Matthieu]

"I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it"
This sentence is the image of a desperate situation. A newborn baby is harmless and can't defend himself. Even a newborn baby who is so innocent can be threatened.

"Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’"
This sentence says that lots of people need help on earth but nobody is acting and even listening to their distress. It shows how everybody is self-centered and doesn't realize that many people are dying and starving everyday.

"Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden"
This sentence denounces that the persons who perpetrate the most horrible crimes are always protected by their power or by the people who own the power. It denounces an injustice in the judgement of many crimes.

[Darío Hernán Rosell]

* “And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall”
The main sentence of the song is the image that impacts me most, in my opinion Dylan relates to nuclear holocaust that was imminent in the 60's, rain represents everything bad was going to happen, like radiation and nuclear winter.

* “I met a young child beside a dead pony”
This image means to me a child's innocence that is lost prematurely, due to his experience over war’s effects.

* “I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow”
In that sentence I see the goodness that may exist in humans, even in the worst moments, where help and solidarity flourish.

[Floriane Houillon]

"I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin"

This reflects an apocalyptic scene, after a battle. Life doesn't exist anymore, the colors are cold.

"I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children"
No child should ever wear a weapon or a gun. Dylan reminds us that in every conflict, children are involved and deprived of their childhood and innocence.

"Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter"
Art has always been a way of fear and rage in time of conflict. When a poet dies in a gutter, no hope seems to be left.

[Lauranne Spiers]

-“I met a white man who walked a black dog”:
Bob Dylan says that white people are superior to the black people, which is a very big offensive.
-"I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest":
Bob Dylan explains the psychology of soldiers when they return home after war. It’s a dark view, we don’t feel good perspective.
-“I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard”:
There also is a link with the war. There were a lot of dead people, thus it was like a graveyard. During the war, they tried not thinking about that.

[Guillaume]

- "Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’"
This sentence shows the fact that people don't care about the others, but only about themselves.

- "Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden"
This sentence is about people who always hide their face and don't want to see the reality of the war.

- "Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley"
This sentence shows that there are big problems in the society because clowns are supposed to laugh and make people laugh, not to cry.

[Charlotte Voisard]

"I met a young child beside a dead pony"
Child and death are together. If the animal dies of hunger and thirst, it will be the same for child.

"Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley"
There is a paradox: a clown should make you laugh. The clown crying. There is room only for sadness: there is no hope.

"I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children"
The child becomes a man and takes part in the war.