The Queen And The Soldier Lyrics

The Queen And The Soldier lyrics

Suzanne Vega

  

  The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door

  He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"

  The queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before

  And slowly she let him inside.

  

  He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill

  And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill

  But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will

  Only first I am asking you why."

  

  Down in the long narrow hall he was led

  Into her rooms with her tapestries red

  And she never once took the crown from her head

  She asked him 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 have battles won

  And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun

  And now will you tell me why?"

  

  The young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye

  She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"

  But her face was a child's, and he thought she would cry

  But she closed herself up like a fan.

  

  Andshe said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread

  It cuts me inside, and often I've bled"

  He laid his hand then on 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 are living here alone, and you are never revealed

  But I won't march again on your battlefield"

  And he took her to the window to see.

  

  And the sun, it was gold, though the sky, it was gray

  And she wanted more than she ever could say

  But she knew how it frightened her, and she turned away

  And would not look at his face again.

  

  And 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 who I don't understand

  Your highness, your ways are very strange."

  

  But the crown, it had fallen, and she thought she would break

  And she stood there, ashamed of the way her heart ached

  She took him to the doorstep and she as

 She would only be a moment inside.

  

  Out in the distance her order was heard

  And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word

  And while the queen went on strangeling in the solitude she preferred

  The battle continued on