Cohen Leonard The Traitor Lyrics

The Traitor Lyrics

Now the Swan it floated on the English river
Ah the Rose of High Romance it
opened wide
A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
and the
judges watched us from the other side

I told my mother "Mother I must
leave you
preserve my room but do not shed a tear
Should rumour of a
shabby ending reach you
it was half my fault and half the
atmosphere"

But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
and the Swan
I tempted with a sense of shame
She said at last I was her finest
lover
and if she withered I would be to blame

The judges said you
missed it by a fraction
rise up and brace your troops for the attack
Ah
the dreamers ride against the men of action
Oh see the men of action falling
back

But I lingered on her thighs a fatal moment
I kissed her lips as
though I thirsted still
My falsity had stung me like a hornet
The poison
sank and it paralysed my will

I could not move to warn all the younger
soldiers
that they had been deserted from above
So on battlefields from
here to Barcelona
I'm listed with the enemies of love

And long ago
she said "I must be leaving,
Ah but keep my body here to lie upon
You can
move it up and down and when I'm sleeping
Run some wire through that Rose and
wind the Swan"

So daily I renew my idle duty
I touch her here and
there -- I know my place
I kiss her open mouth and I praise her
beauty
and people call me traitor to my face