8 The Queen and the Soldier

The soldier came knocking upon the queen’s door
and said I am not fighting for you anymore,
The Queen knew she’d seen his face someplace before
So slowly she let him inside.

He said “I’ve seen your palace up here on the hill
and I wondered who’s the woman for whom we all kill
but I’m leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will
only first I must ask you why?”

Then down the long narrow hall he was lead
Into her room with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head
She asked him in the there to sit down.

He said “I see you now and you are so very young
But I’ve seen more battles lost than I’ve seen battles won
But I’ve got this intuition says its all for your fun
So now will you tell me why?”


Well the young queen she fixed him with an arrogant eye
Saying “you won’t understand and you may as well not try”
But her face was like a child and she thought she would cry
But she closed herself up like a fan.

She said I have swallowed that secret burning thread
It cuts me inside and often I've bled
Then he laid his hand on the top of her head
and he bowed her down to the ground

"Tell me how hungry are you how weak you must feel
as you sit here all alone but you are never revealed
But I wont march again on your battle field
And he took her to the window to see.

And the sun it was gold and the sky it was grey
And she wanted more than she ever could say
But she knew how it frightened her so she turned away
And would not look at his face again

He said “I want to live as an honest man
To get all I deserve and to give all I can
And to love a young woman I don’t understand
Your highness your ways are very strange.”

But the crown it had fallen and she thought she would break
she stood there ashamed of the way her heart ached,
Then she took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait
She would only be a moment inside.

But out in the distance the order was heard
And the soldier was killed still waiting for her word
And as the Queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
The battle continued on.

Contact: Whirling Discs Ltd,
Cairns Hill,
Aughamore-near,
Sligo,
IRELAND.

Phone +353868260334
Email Address: mcsligo@gmail.com
Website: www.dervish.ie

Songwriter: Suzanne Vega
Publishing & PRO: Dervish
Release Date: 2007