The Colour of Time - Part 26 / Merry Christmas ...

 

Dora of Wye - the mighty and magnificent witch and sorceress - enjoyed the Fuchsia of this moment and the thoughts of a City of California.

The footsteps she followed through the snow from the round door of her fortified barrel led her over a drawbridge over the River Why to the last open gate of the City of Earth where a guard in a colourful armor and a helmet with a taily crest made of red and orange dyed feathers blocked her way with his halberd.

'What is your business in the City of Earth?' the guard barked. 'What is your concern?'

He did not recognize her, she thought, or otherwise he would have sent her away immediately like all the other guards over all these past years. And all of this although or maybe because she had put down all the spells and enchantments that had made her appear like an ageless woman.

'I'm just an old woman who came a long way to visit the places and the memories of her past live,' she said.

'I know your face,' the city guard said and let her pass. 'And I think there are a bard and his llama companion waiting for you near the booksmith's forge close to the city walls. They have arrived here just moments before you.'

'I know,' Dora of Wye thought, 'I have read that in my book of knowledge and experiences and in the bard's clear-blue eyes last year when he came here to seek for my help and guidance.'

With that exact book of her life in her hands and a knowing and expecting smile on her face Dora approached the bard and his llama. Behind the two of them at a set of stair treads she saw a familiar blurring glow in the air, the same glow that accompanied the entrance to the Temple of the spring and well of forecast most of the times.

'I know the colour of time!' Bromford, the bard, shouted out aloud across the street. 'I know La Couleur du Temps! It's a song!'

And he rammed the end of his staff-flute into the ground between two dark cobblestones and started singing. And while his staff-flute played and he was singing, Dora knew that everything was good.

La Couleur du Temps

Je connais la couleur du temps
Je connais la rue des enfants
Je connais les rues de l'hiver
Je connais le monde à l’envers
Je connais l'odeur de l'argent
Je connais la folie des gens
Je connais ta mère mieux qu’ton père
Qui faisait la pluie, le beau temps

C'est une histoire de fou
Aveuglé de partout
Qui rêve debout, à poings fermés
Qui fеrme les yeux pour oubliеr

Je connais l'enfer sur la Terre
Je connais la fille du marchand
Je connais les yeux du néant
Et je sais que naguère
Reviendra la guerre
Je connais le bord de la mère
Je connais des yeux si troublants
Je connais la couleur du temps
Et j'espère qu'il est encore temps

Manu Chao

The Colour of Time

I know the colour of time
I know the street of children
I know the streets of winter
I know the world upside down
I know the smell of money
I know the madness of people
I know your mother better than your father
Who made the rain, the sunshine

It's a madman's story
Blinded from all sides
Who dreams standing up, with clenched fists
Who closes his eyes to forget

I know hell on Earth
I know the merchant's daughter
I know the eyes of nothingness
And I know that long ago
War will return
I know the edge of the sea
I know eyes so troubling
I know the colour of time
And I hope there's still time

Manu Chao

"Bromford Blues"

It's the story of a very unfortunate coloured man
Who got arrested down in old Bromford
He got twenty years' privilege taken away from him
When he kicked old Buddha's gong

And now he's poppin' the piano just to raise the
price
Of a ticket to the land of the free
Well, he says his home's in 'Frisco where they
send the rice
But it's really in Tennessee

That's why he says
I need someone to love me
Need somebody to carry me home to San
Francisco
And bury my body there
I need someone to lend me a fifty-dollar bill
and then
I'll leave Bromford far behind me
For happiness once again

Won't somebody believe
I've a yen to see that Bay again
Everytime I try to leave
Sweet opium won't let me fly away
I need someone to love me
Need somebody to carry me home to San Francisco
And bury my body there

That's the story of a very unfortunate coloured man
Who got arrested down in old Bromford
He got twenty years' privilege taken away from him
When he kicked old Buddha's gong.

Today is Friday, the 26th of December 2025.
Second Christmas Day
Boxing Day