With all the grain of Babylon

Elise Blackwell escreveu Hunger (FOME, na nossa edição a sair em Abril), uma novela sobre o dilema de um brilhante botânico russo do Instituto Vavilov em Leninegrado, durante o cerco de 900 dias pela tropas nazis: salvar a sua honra e a do instituto e fazer o que a sua mulher e os seus colegas decidiram (não comer as sementes armazenadas),... ou salvar-se a ele mesmo.

Os Decemberists usaram a novela como mote para comporem "When the War Came", publicada no álbum The Crane Wife (2006). Eis a letra (a canção pode ser escutada aqui):

With all the grain of Babylon
To cultivate to make us strong
And hidden here behind the walls
Are shoulders wide and timber on
'Til the war came
'Til the war came

A terrible autonomy
Is grafted onto you and me
Our trust put in the government
They told their lies are heaven sent
'Til the war came
'Til the war came

And the war came with a curse and a caterwaul
And the war came with all the poise of a cannonball
And they're picking out our eyes by coal and candlelight
When the war came, the war came hard

We made our oath to Vavilov
We'd not betray the Solanum
The acres of asteraceae
To our own pangs of starvation
When the war came
When the war came

And the war came with a curse and a caterwaul
And the war came with all the poise of a cannonball
And they're picking out our eyes by coal and candlelight
When the war came, the war came hard

With all the grain of Babylon