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Joe Hill's Last Will

Joe Hill
Language: English


Joe Hill

List of versions


Related Songs

Vitti na crozza
(Autori Vari / Different Authors / Différents Auteurs)
L'orrida bestia
(A Filetta)
Passa lu mari
(Mimmo Cavallaro)


[1915]
Lyrics by Joe Hill
Music by Ethel Rain (?) founder of the group The Pennywhistlers






Joe Hill was executed by firing squad, sometimes called fusillading, on November 19, 1915, and his last word was "Fire!"
That same day, a dynamite bomb was discovered at the Tarrytown estate of John D. Archbold, President of the Standard Oil Company. Police theorized the bomb was planted by anarchists and IWW radicals as a protest against Hill's execution. The bomb was discovered by a gardener, who found four sticks of dynamite, weighing a pound each, half hidden in a rut in a driveway fifty feet from the front entrance of the residence. The dynamite sticks were bound together by a length of wire, fitted with percussion caps, and wrapped with a piece of paper matching the color of the driveway, a path used by Archbold in going to or from his home by automobile. The bomb was later defused by police.
Just prior to his execution, Hill had written to Bill Haywood, an IWW leader, saying, «Goodbye Bill. I die like a true blue rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize... Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state line to be buried? I don't want to be found dead in Utah».

My will is easy to decide,
For there is nothing to divide.
My kin don't need to fuss and moan,
"Moss does not cling to a rolling stone."

My body? Oh, if I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce,
And let the merry breezes blow,
My dust to where some flowers grow.

Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my Last and final Will.
Good Luck to All of you,
Joe Hill

Contributed by giorgio - 2012/11/7 - 08:25




Language: Italian

Traduzione italiana di Riccardo Venturi
24 aprile 2015


Interpretata da Utah Phillips

IL TESTAMENTO DI JOE HILL

È un testamento semplice, il mio,
perché non c'è nulla da ereditare.
La mia famiglia non avrà da lamentarsi,
non si cava sangue da una rapa.

Il mio corpo? Se potessi scegliere
vorrei ridurlo in cenere
e farlo soffiare via dal vento
in polvere dove crescon dei fiori.

Forse qualche fiore che appassisce
tornerebbe in vita e rifiorirebbe.
Queste sono le mie ultime volontà,
buona fortuna a tutti voi.
Joe Hill.

2015/4/24 - 15:27




Language: Swedish


Traduzione svedese / Swedish translation / Svensk översättning: Ture Nerman
MIN SISTA VILJA

Min sista vilja lättlydd är,
ty intet finns att dela här.
En sten, som ständigt rullar grå,
den växer ingen mossa på.

Min kropp - om mig min vilja sker,
till aska bränner ni den ner
och strö mitt stoft i vindens dans
bland några blommor små nånstans.

Kanhända ger den liv på nytt
åt någon stjälk, vars kraft har flytt.
Så är vad allt till sist jag vill.
Och alla allting gott!
Joe Hill

Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2015/5/9 - 23:33




Language: Swedish


Traduzione svedese 2 / Swedish translation 2 / Svensk översättning 2: Signe Aurell

Signe Aurell, who may have come from the Glimåkra-Osby district of Kristianstad, Sweden, immigrated to America around 1914 and worked as a laundress in Minneapolis, where she belonged to the IWW. Her poems appeared in "Allarm", "Arbetaren", "Bokslugan" and the Stockholm anarchist paper "Brand". In 1919 she privately published a collection of verse called "Irrbloss" (Will-o'-the-Wisp). Returning to Sweden in 1920, she was living at Osby in 1955 when interviewed by the Stockholm Communist daily "Ny Dag". There are two poems about Joe Hill (Josef Hillström) in "Irrbloss". Aurell's translation of "Joe Hill's Last Will" is in the 1924 songbook "Sånger av Joe Hill". - Swedish Labor Songs

JOE HILLS TESTAMENTE

Mitt testamente är helt kort,
ty intet finns att skifta bort.
Sörj ej, kamrater, blott gå på.
Rullande sten ej mossa kan få.

Min kropp till aska gör till slut,
strö stoftet fritt för vinden ut.
På glättig lek i rymden blå,
Till nejderna, där blommor står.

En ros, vars fägring kanska flytt,
då blomma kann en gång på nytt.
Der är min vilja, samt därtill
Jag önskar lycka. Er
Joe Hill

Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2015/5/9 - 23:35




Language: Swedish


Traduzione svedese 3 / Swedish translation 3 / Svensk översättning 3: Jacob Branting
MITT TESTAMENTE

Mitt testamente blir helt kort
ty där finns intet att ge bort.
Det är ej stort att orda om:
»Bort går jag naken som jag kom.«

Så sprid min kropp som aska för
en lekfull vindil när jag dör,
och låt den falla ner som regn
på någon jordisk blomsteräng.

Kanhända att en blomma då
som slokar nytt liv kunde få.
Så vill jag ha det. Lycka till
ni alla människor.
Joe Hill

Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2015/5/9 - 23:36


Written in his cell, November 18, 1915, on the eve of his execution

"A guard reported that at about 10 p.m., Hill handed him a poem through the bars of his cell. It was his last will, which has become a prized piece of poetry in the heritage of the American labor movement...."
[Gibbs M. Smith, Labor Martyr Joe Hill, New York, NY, 1969, p. 174.]

Dead End - 2012/11/7 - 13:16


Cant hear the music - unlawfull in Denmark
Ved retten på Frederiksbergs kendelse af 20. februar 2012 er Hi3G Denmark ApS ("3") blevet pålagt at hindre sine kunders adgang til www.grooveshark.com, som efter Rettighedsalliancens opfattelse formidler ulovligt kopieret indhold.

På baggrund af denne retskendelse har TDC besluttet at spærre for adgangen til siderne.

TDC har ikke foretaget nogen registrering af dit besøg på denne side.

Holger Terp - 2012/11/7 - 22:45


To Holger Terp

Holger, please let me know if you can listen to this one.
Joe Hill's Last Will (Country Cooking & The Fiction)

giorgio - 2012/11/8 - 10:18


Minchia, Giorgio! Holger Terp ci ha appena dato una ferale notizia...

Dead End - 2012/11/8 - 11:32


Beh, è da un bel po' che lamenta di non riuscire ad ascoltare i miei link vedi anche qui.

Ora ha realizzato che è un problema suo (o meglio del suo paese!), come un po' sospettavo. Ci sono tanti siti musicali americani ancora non consentiti all'Italia e ad altri paesi europei. Lo stesso grooveshark.com ci è stato proibito per più di un anno, prima di riprendere..

giorgio - 2012/11/8 - 13:03




Language: German

Traduzione tedesca / German translation / Traduction allemande / Deutsche Übersetzung / Saksankielinen käännös: Augustin Souchy

JOE HILLS TESTAMENT

Mein Testament soll bescheiden und demütig sein,
denn gar nichts auf Erden, ihr Freunde, ist mein.
Vergebens, ihr Lieben, ist all euer Klagen,
Bäume im Hagel, wie könnten sie Früchte tragen?

Mein Leib? Ich darf meinen Wunsch euch bekennen!
Lasst zu Asch, den Morschen, verbrennen!
Lasst Stürme und Winde durch Länder sie blasen,
lasst Ruhe sie finden auf blumigen Rasen!
Vielleicht wird einst die sterbende Blume,
noch irgendwann aufblüh'n, der Blüte zum Ruhme.

Zum Schluss: Glück auf! Dem, der es so will;
Mein letzter Wille ist's - euer Joe Hill.

Contributed by Juha Rämö - 2019/7/15 - 12:20




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