Thoughts on war: Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms (Published on 21/10/2024)
“Brothers in Arms” is a well-known rock song by the British band “Dire Straits”. It was written by Mark Knopfler and released in 1985 on the Dire Straits album of the same name. According to Knopfler, the song, written during the Falklands War, is sung by a soldier dying on the battlefield, reflecting his views and feelings. He begins by describing his own origins and homeland, then the mutual support and comradeship of soldiers on one side in battle, before going on to emphasize that the soldiers on the other side are also “brothers in arms”, among themselves and towards those of the enemy, and that it is idiocy to wage war against what are ultimately one’s own brothers, thus sending a strong message against war.
These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me.
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be.
Some day you’ll return to
Your valleys and your farms.
And you’ll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms.
Through these fields of destruction,
Baptisms of fire,
I’ve witnessed your suffering
As the battle raged higher.
And though they did hurt me so bad,
In the fear and alarm.
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms.
There’s so many different worlds,
So many different suns.
And we have just one world,
But we live in different ones.
Now the sun’s gone to hell,
And the moon riding high.
Let me bid you farewell,
Every man has to die.
But it’s written in the starlight
And every line in your palm.
We’re fools to make war,
On our brothers in arms.
(Head picture: Grave cross at the American military cemetery in Hamm/Luxembourg,
inscribed “Here rests in Honored Glory a Comrade in Arms known but to God”, September 2024)
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