Not the Same Old Song - Part 10

Kismet
The Olive Tree

The 1953 Broadway musical and 1955 film Kismet had an Arabian Nights-type plot about a penniless poet and his beautiful daughter, a handsome young Caliph, and an evil Wazir and his seductive wife.  Of course, romantic complications ensue.  In addition, it has great music adapted from classical music by the Russian composer Borodin, a contemporary of Tchaikovsky.  The most famous song from Kismet is Stranger in Paradise.

Today's song is The Olive Tree, a bit of philosophical musing by the penniless poet that maybe he doesn't always have to be a penniless poet.

In the photos that I've used to illustrate the song, the part of the "fool" is portrayed by one of my favorite unashamed males who goes by the name Nature Boy James.  I certainly do not mean to imply that James is a fool.  I simply had some good photos of him under a tree.  All right, James has big ears, but he also has a big something else that makes up for it.

The song is sung by Howard Keel, who played the poet in the 1955 film.

The Olive Tree

A fool sat beneath an olive tree

And a wondrous thought had he,

So he rose and he told it to the sky,

And where was I?

Behind the tree.

I overheard his reverie.

“Why be content with an olive when you could have the tree?

Why be content to be nothing, when there's nothing you couldn't be?

Why be contented with one olive tree when you could have a whole olive grove?

Why be content with a grove when you could have the world?”

The fool stood beneath the olive tree

"What a wondrous thought" said he

"But alas, it is very, very deep,"

And so he yawned and went to sleep,

Because you see, he was a fool.

Why be content with an olive when you could have the tree?

That which has lulled you to sleep, fool, has awakened me.

Why should I sigh that my lot is my lot, that I can't make it anything more,

When that is a lie, an excuse for a fool to snore.

I walked from behind the olive tree

With a wondrous change in me,

For I walked with my eye upon a star.

If you have heard

And do not heed

There is a word

For what you are,

And oh my friend, the word is ...

Fool !