The drawings provide witness to the thoughts and concerns of children trapped, through no fault of their own, in this most difficult of times and places. While many depict the actual events, others are imbued with hope … the children drawing scenes from what they must have seen as their idyllic former lives and drawing abstract representations of their dreams. It was this that prompted the emotional tenor of my story and led me towards the idea that, no matter what occurs in our daily lives, we must continue to proudly sing our songs and those of our forebears, in the spirit of people such as Friedl Dicker-Brandeis.
After the war, many Jewish survivors sought to re-establish themselves in countries like Canada and Australia. It seemed right to me that Rafael would choose to live in relative solitude in the Canadian wilderness and equally right that his free-spirited daughter would leave that solitude and eventually make her way to a vibrant, developing country such as Australia.
As I write these words, many countries and their citizens across the world remain embroiled within unnecessary conflict and crisis. I do wonder what might happen if we exerted genuine effort in knowing and understanding each other better. Surely the world would improve immeasurably if we put down our weapons, both real and metaphoric, and chose to sing together in resolute harmony; if, like Joe and Soraya, we chose to lift our voices to a point where finally, they become as one.
Richard Yaxley, 2017
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
‘A Walk’ in Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, edited and translated by Robert Bly (Harper Collins, New York, 1981).
Hajej, můj andílku (Sleep, My Little Angel, Czech lullaby collected by Karel Jaromír Erben); available on Kindersite.org and Languages from the Cradle, 2008.
‘I Am Much Too Alone In This World, Yet Not Alone’ in The Book of Hours: Prayers to a Lowly God by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Annemarie S. Kidder (Northwestern University Press, Illinois, 2001).
Rose, rose red (Traditional Elizabethan song).
‘The Erl-King’ by Johann Goethe, translated by E.A. Bowring in The Poems of Goethe: Translated in the Original Meters (George Bell and Sons, London, 1880).
‘The Fourth Elegy’ in Rainer Maria Rilke: Selected Poems, translated by Albert Flemming (Routledge, New York, 1990).
This Is My Song was developed as part of a Creative
Time Residential Fellowship generously awarded by the
May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust
Teachers’ notes for This Is My Song are available from www.scholastic.com.au
Published by Omnibus Books, an imprint of Scholastic Australia
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First edition published by Scholastic Australia in 2017.
This electronic edition published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited, 2017.
E-PUB/MOBI eISBN: 978 1 76027 220 3
Text © Richard Yaxley, 2017.
‘The Sparrows Fly’ music and lyrics © Richard Yaxley, 2017.
Cover design © Design by Committee, 2017.
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