Johnny Clegg

Universal Men

Johnny Clegg


I have undone this distance
So many times before
It seems as if this life of mine
Is trapped between two shores
As the little ones grow older on the station platform
I will undo that distance just once more

My brothers and my sisters have been scattered in the wind
Dressed in cheap horizons that have never quite fitted
And for centuries they've travelled in a pale phantom ship
Sailing for that shore which has no other

They made the world that you live in
They made it go around
They made the world we live in

They made the world that we live in
They make it go around
They made the world we live in

They could not read
And they could not write
And they could not spell their names
BUt they took this world in both hands
And they changed it all the same
And from whence they came and where they went
Nobody knows or cares

They made the world that you live in
They made it go around
They made the world we live in

They made the world that we live in
They make it go around
They made the world we live in

From our hands leap the buildings
From our shoulders bridges fall
We stand astride the mountain
And pull out all the gold
The rivers of our homelands
Murmur in our dreams
We are trapped inside that distance
Until the future sets us free

They made the world that you live in
They made it go around
They made the world we live in

They made the world that we live in
They make it go around
They made the world we live in