This song describes the problem the lead character in the play "The Memo" is faced with.

 

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Songs for Vaclav Havel

 

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The Memorandum (Theme for "The Memo")

 

 

There's a memorandum written in a language you don't understand.

It's an official memorandum for the office you command.

It's on your desk. Where did it come from? You don't recognize the hand.

Is it benign, an accident, or something adversaries planned?

 

You don't know what the memo says or what its language might imply.

Is it a statement to affirm or accusation to deny?

If you don't find out what it means how can you fashion a reply?

If you don't get someone to translate it you cannot even try.

 

You can't get anyone to help you, not even your employee.

The situation is perplexing, something you could not foresee.

Three strikes, you're out, and now it's clear that you've already had your three.

And now you're drowning in a never-ending bureaucratic sea.

 

It looks suspicious: your position might be getting undermined.

It seems a program has been set up and specifically defined.

Your crafty deputy appears to be the program's mastermind.

Perhaps you haven't been so careful with the papers you've signed.

 

What does this thing mean? (I can't read one word of it.)

None of it makes sense! (It's gibberish and blather.)

Science run amok! (No more communication.)

This thing must be stopped! (But there's no way to stop it. No one has a way to stop it!)

 

There's a memorandum written in a language you don't understand.

It's an official memorandum for the office you command.

It's on your desk. Where did it come from? You don't recognize the hand.

Is it benign, an accident, or something adversaries planned?