Lisbon 1755 (Earthquake Samba)

from Repeat the Days by Atlas Fret

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about

The now mostly forgotten earthquake that destroyed the city of Lisbon was in its day a touchstone event. It came at a time when Europe of wrestling with the power of modern scientific investigation versus the power of God. There was a good bit of debate as to whether the disaster was due to divine intervention, or a force of nature that had yet to be discovered. The song lyrics tackle the event from the perspective of an eye witness who is surveying the damage to his beloved city and considering the meaning (if any) behind such a tragedy.

lyrics

I walk through the streets of my city
God laid waste to this land
Or is it a force of nature we’ve yet to understand
Great minds of Europe will argue what brought this upon us
I say, what does it matter
It’s all hardship in the end, but then
I walk through city streets of my city on All Saints Day
Buildings rocked and glass shattered, everything was in disarray
Friendly fires in the hearth turned into conflagrations
Scorching the city that I love, the city I call my home
Lisbon, my Lisbon, what have we done?
I don’t think we deserve this
Don’t we sit, stand and kneel to pray almost every single day?
I don’t believe God will forget us
He just works in mysterious ways
Like tidal waves on the Tagus and fire in Lisbon’s streets