L'idéal (Sonnets And Small Ballades) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after A. G. Visser)

Anno 1688:
In France the Huguenots flee to the caves
are hanged for their faith on high scaffolds
as if they are not noble God fearing people
when in God's name others do conspire.

Chorus:
The urge for freedom nobody can kill
and to exist in liberty the ideal is great.

He has a magnificent estate on the Loire
but they squander innocent blood in France,
he has got to flee as for freedom he has got an urge
and over the Atlantic Ocean he comes with great courage

settles down as a farmer in the Paarl valley
where his new estate gets the name "L'Idéal"
where he plants vineyards as far as the eye can see
and wants to live at peace with all his neighbours and countrymen.

Anno 1899:

Out of the north from the Orange Free State and Transvaal
comes the cry of distress that does set the future for fellow-tribesmen
when the great British Empire declares war against them
and he decides to pay with his own blood a price for freedom.

Chorus:
The urge for freedom nobody can kill
and to exist in liberty the ideal is great.

As a Cape rebel the British will hang him
if they can catch this brave Boer
but he rides along with the victor De la Rey
where he does long for freedom for his own people.

At speed they do gallop with horses into danger
with farms being burnt down a hell of a struggle has begun
and they defeat British soldiers just where they can
but against a huge force majeure the Boer's are far too few.

Anno 1988:
The Defence Force sends him into Angola
from Rundu in battles that wage fiercely for days
where he is manning a Ratel-90 armoured-car
and in victory he answers enemy fire.

Chorus:
The urge for freedom nobody can kill
and to exist in liberty the ideal is great.

He faces enemy T-55 battle-tanks and are scared
where for days his own life does hang in the balance
but the 47th FAPLA / Cuban brigade is astounded
and cornered against the Lomba and Cuzizi rivers,

where his Ratel-90 armoured-car must come to a halt to fire its cannon
but bravely he fights and so does every fellow-tribesmen to give resistance
do destroy ninety-four battle-tanks and hundreds of armoured cars,
to the great sorrow and destruction of the 47th FAPLA / Cuban brigade.

Anno 2017:

Through a bald-headed politician and the voters his country is lost,
farmers and their families are tortured and murdered,
unemployed he is despised as one of a minority
and he wonders what freedom does still remain for him?

Chorus:
The urge for freedom nobody can kill
and to exist in liberty the ideal is great.

Just where he comes there are other fellow-tribesmen that are in greater distress,
where everyone now lives extradited in a rubbish-heap state,
at traffic lights some stand and beg for money and food
where other fellow-tribesmen do despise them and drive past

but silently the struggle for freedoms does continue still
where he does assist other fellow-tribesmen wherever he can,
do write poems to highlight the oppression,
see it as a duty that the world must understand the situation.

[Reference:"L'Idéal" by A. G. Visser.Poet's note:A Boer more generally called a Afrikaner is a South African whose home language is Afrikaans and is of Dutch and French and German descent.]

© Gert Strydom