Leon Rosselson’s “Song of the Olive Tree”
Zaytoun on November 14th, 2008This lovely song is on 2 CDs, as well as on Youtube in case any of you want to sing it! Liz Mansfield sings it on ‘Turning Silence into Song’ (Fuse Records CFCD 009) & Janet Russell sings it on ‘And They All Sang Rosselsongs’ (Fuse Records CFCD 012).
Many thanks to Leon for allowing us to post the lyrics here
SONG OF THE OLIVE TREE Leon Rosselson
My father’s father’s father planted here
In this now broken earth an olive tree
And as a child I sang to it my secrets
And as I grew I felt it part of me.
Its branches gave me shelter from the sun.
Its grey green leaves shaded my young dreams.
The fruit it bore was like a gift of hope
Of all the olive trees, I loved this one.
The settlers came, they beat us black and blue.
They said, Next time we shoot you. Understand?
But still we dared to come, we had no choice
We came at night like thieves to our own land.
Like ghosts we came, men women, young and old
To pick the crop as we have always done.
For centuries we harvested in peace
The oil we pressed was sweet, precious as gold.
Now look. This is a cemetery for trees.
Their great machines crushed hope into despair
They ripped the heart from every living tree
Except for one, my tree they chose to spare.
They dug it up, they smuggled it away
This ancient tree, they saw it as a prize
For some Israeli rich enough to pay
Five thousand dollars worth, that’s what they say.
Do you believe in ghosts? Last night I dreamed
My father’s father’s father came to me
He took my hand and held it in his own
And said, Take heart, here is my olive tree.
And when I woke it was a kind of birth
And in my hand I found an olive stone
And in the field where once my tree had been
A thousand shapes arose out of the earth.
I saw their faces, women, children, men
And each hand held a perfect olive stone
And each heart held a vision of to come
When all our olive trees will rise again.
