Today am I red

In music, even the most terrible things are sung so beautifully, you would never think to plug your ears. The dirge “Today am I red” (“Heute bin ich rot”) is a nursery rhyme from the Burgenland region of Austria. The children sing: Today am I red and tomorrow am I dead. I watched a rendition of that song on the television, where a father from Homs was holding his dead child in his arms. The only questions in my mind were: will that child get a proper burial? Are there even coffins in that size? Will someone pray at the grave? But perhaps only the birds will sing.

Text: Today am I red and tomorrow am I dead, Today lie I still in my father’s bed, They carry me out and never more herein, All, my gentlemen, for which I still ask you: For an “Our Father, who art…..”