The Shifting Whispering Sands - Jim Reeves

作词：Michael Gilbert/Vonitra Gilbert

作曲：Michael Gilbert/Vonitra Gilbert

I discovered the valley of the shifting

whispering sands

While prospecting for gold

in one of our western states

I saw the silent windmills the crumbling water tanks

The bones of cattle and burrows picked clean

by buzzards

Bleached by the desert sun

I stumbled over a crumbling buckboard

nearly covered by the sands

And stopping to rest I heard a tinkling

whispering sound

And suddenly realised that even though

The wind was quiet the sand did not lie still

I seemed to be surrounded by a mystery so heavy

And oppressive I can scarcely breath

For days and weeks I wandered aimlessly in this valley

Seeking answers to the many questions

That raced through my fevered mind

Where was everyone why the white bones

the dry wells

The barren valley where people must

have lived and died

Finally I could go no farther my food and water gone

I sat down and buried my face in my hands

and resting thus

I learnt the secret of the shifting whispering sands

How I manage to escaped from the valley

I do not know

But now to pay my final debt for being spared

I must tell you what I learned out there on the desert

So many years ago

When the day is oddly quiet

And the breeze seems not to blow

One would think the sand was resting

But you'll find this is not so

It is whisp'ring softly whisp'ring

As it slowly moves along

And for those who stop and listen

It will sing this mournful song

Of sidewinders and the horntoads

Of the Thorny Chaparral

In the sunny days and moonlight nights

The coyote's lonely yell

How the stars seem you could touch them

As you lay and gaze on high

At the heavens where we're hoping

We'll be going when we die

Yes it always whispers to me of the days of long ago

When the settlers and the miners fought

the crafty navaho

How the cattle roamed the valley happy

people worked the land

And now everything is covered by the shifting

whispering sands

How the miner left his buckboard went to

work his claims that day

And the burros broke their halters when they

thought he'd gone to stay

Wandered far in search of water on

to old sidewinder's well

And there their bones picked clean by buzzards

that were circling when they fell

How they found the ancient miner

lying dead upon the sand

After months they could but wonder if he died

by human hand

So they dug his grave and laid him on his back

and crossed his hands

And his secret still is hidden by the shifting

whispering sands

This is what they whispered to me on the quiet desert air

Of the people and the cattle and the miner lying there

If you want to learn their secret wander

through this quiet land

And I'm sure you'll hear the story of the shifting

whispering sands

On the shifting whispering sands