I was racking my brain trying to come up with a song for this week's edition of "Learn English with Music" when I saw on TV Tokyo Olympics competition has started. I knew then what song I wanted to pick.
"Race to the End" is based on the theme music of one of my all time favorite movies, "Chariots of Fire".
"Chariots of Fire" is about two athletes who are outsiders to the British class system, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice.
It is based on the true story of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams who took part in the 1924 Olympics. Eric Liddell refused to run in the heats for his favored 100 meter race because they were held on a Sunday. (He was born in China to Scottish Missionary parents. He returned to China after the Olympics and remained there until his death in a Japanese internment camp in 1945.) Instead he competed in the 400 meter event held on a weekday, a race he won. Harold Abrahams won the 100 meter sprint.
The movie portrays both athletes as using running as a means of asserting their dignity. While it has many running scenes, the movie takes its subjects as occasions for statements about human nature. It documents a time when men still believed you could win a race if only you wanted to badly enough, a time when “lying-flat-ism” gaining popularity would have been unimaginable.
There is but one freedom
Man running (along)
Each step that he's taking
A step to his soul
The passion and (courage)
It takes to be there
The spirit of freedom
(Alive) in the air
Whenever the running man (awakes)
To challenge, to glory
He knows he can turn the key once more
To (unlock) the soul
The way becomes clearer, the way is complete
The need, that of winning
(Admit) no defeat
The circles together
Hold hands to the sky
The freedom of running
The freedom to fly
Let no man surround himself with (pain)
But (use) it to free him
The game is to learn, to live (again)
To try to the end
A race to the end
----------------------------------------
By the way, there is an easy way to become an Olympian, an Olympian in one's own mind anyway: Go visit Olympia in Greece and run in that ancient stadium where the ancient Olympic Games were held every four years for more than a thousand years, from 776 BCE to 393 CE. The first picture below shows the stadium as it is today. That line of white block on one end of the track was the starting line: athletes would line up to place their feet on it and get ready to start the race. The second visualizes racing runners in ancient Olympic Games. The third one shows a modern day Olympian, yours truly, running in the stadium. :)
