Tono: C
Introducción: C G C G C
C##
th Fret
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Of all of Kiri Ito's joys, the thing she loved the best
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Was to play her prized piano when the sun had gone to rest
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I used to hear the notes drift down along the silent water
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As Kiri played the notes and scales for her dear sons and daughters
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Now me, I played piano, though not as good as Kiri
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She went in for that long haired stuff, but my she played it pretty
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The old piano had a tone, would set my heart to aching
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It always sounded sweetest, though, when it was Kiri playing
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In December when the seventh fleet was turned to smoke and ashes
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The order came to confiscate their fishing boats and caches
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And Kiri's husband forced to go and work in labour camps
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And Kiri left alone to fend and hold the fort as best she can
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But the music did not drift as often, up the cove at Kiri's house
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And when it did it sounded haunted, played with worry, played with doubt
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For Kiri knew that soon she too would be compelled to leave
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And the old upright would stay behind and Kiri she would grieve
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I loaded Kiri on the bus with stoic internees
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The crime that they were guilty of was that they were not like me
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And if I was ashamed, I didn't know it at the time
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They were flotsam on the wave of war, they were no friends of mine
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And I went up to Kiri's house to tag all their belongings
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And set them out for auctioneers who'd claim them in the morning
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One piece that I thought I'd keep and hold back for myself
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Was that haunting ivory upright that Kiri played so well
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Kiri had not left it there for me to take as plunder
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She'd rolled it down onto the dock and on into the harbour
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That old upright in strangers' hands was a thought she couldn't bear
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So she consigned it to the sea to settle the affair
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So many years have come and gone since Kiri's relocation
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I look back now upon that time with shame and resignation
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For Kiri knew what I did not that if we must be free
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Then sometimes we must sacrifice to gain our dignity
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Yes, Kiri knew what I did not that if we must be free
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Then sometimes we must sacrifice to gain our dignity