michael edwards [music]

Once upon a time I was a sophomore in high school, living in Nairobi, Kenya. Television in Kenya was, to this American boy, an irrational mix with no rhyme or reason. Sunset Beach, WWF, failed tv shows (Meego?), strange commercials, and obscure movies. It was surreal to see captial-a American television in a foreign context, like eating McDonalds on Mars or something.

One movie that I encountered on Kenyan television was the film The Last Butterfly. The film is about a french stage mime, Antoine Moreau, who is compelled by the Gestapo to put on a show for the children of Terezin, a “model” concentration camp set up to trick Red Cross observers about the true nature of the camps. Antoine gradually becomes wise to the truth of the situation and where the “transports” were really taking the Jews. He then sets out to stage a show to end all shows, in (suicidal/martyring) protest.

It is not as intense of a movie as, say, Schindler’s List or The Pianist, but it is very good. I bring it up because in the movie there is a bittersweet song that caught my ears at the time and I wanted to post the lyrics here. It’s called Signs of Spring.

Come and I’ll teach you to smile up at cloudy skies
Just listen to me and I’ll help you see
Life with lovers’ eyes

Rain just means that sunshine must be on its way
Lovers know the darkest hour comes before the day
Lovers have no fears of what the year ahead will bring
They know the cold of winter is another sign of spring

Even in the dead of winter I hear some bird sing
For cold and snow, as lovers know, are only signs of spring