Can I Forgive Him Lyrics

Can I Forgive Him lyrics

Esmeralda

I am esmeralda agrón, se? ora.

I know I've no right to
speak.

My son is not the savage boy you see,

The cape, the sneer,
the slicked-back hair

It hides the child I nursed and bathed, se? ora.

Please don't turn your eyes from me

Your son, gone to god, and mine to
blame

My fated son,

He too is gone

The state will see to
that, I am sure, se? ora

The state will see to that, I am sure.



1st mother

You spanish people, you come to this country

Nothing
here changes your lives

Ungrateful immigrants asking for pity

When
all of your answers are knives

This city makes a cartoon of a crime

Capes and umbrellas the glorification of slime

I have to face this
horror, se? ora.



2nd mother

My religion

Asks me to
pray for the murderer's soul

But I think you'd have to be

Jesus on
the cross

To open your heart after such a loss

Can I forgive him?


Can I forgive him? 

No, I cannot

Can I forgive him

No,
I cannot



Friends become strangers

Compassion is hard to
express in words

The trembling flowers they bring

Fear in the roots
and the stem

What happened to me they know could happen to them.

Can
I forgive him

No, I cannot

Can I forgive him

No



Esmeralda

Only God can say 'forgive'

His son too received a
knife

But we go on, we have to live

With this cross we call our
life



1st mother

Feels like a bomb fell

And wave after
wave come the aftershocks



2nd mother

You can't believe that
it's true

There must be some mistake

You drift through this
nightmare from which you can't wake



Both mothers

Can I
forgive him? 

Can I forgive him,

No, I cannot



Can I
forgive him? 

Can I forgive him, no, I cannot



Can I forgive
him? 

Can I forgive him, no, I cannot



Can I forgive him

No, I cannot.







Lead vocal, acoustic guitar-paul
simon

Recorded at paul simon's home