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Now the swan it floated on the English river |
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Ah, the rose of high romance, it opened wide |
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A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer |
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And the judges watched us from the other side |
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I told my mother, "Mother, I must leave you |
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Preserve my room but do not shed a tear |
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Should rumor of a shabby ending reach you |
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It was half my fault and half the atmosphere" |
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But the rose I sickened with a scarlet fever |
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And the swan I tempted with a sense of shame |
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She said at last I was her finest lover |
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And if she withered I would be to blame |
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The judges said, "You missed it by a fraction |
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Rise up and brace your troops for the attack" |
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Ah, the dreamers ride against the men of action |
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Oh, see the men of action falling back |
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But I lingered on her thighs, a fatal moment |
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I kissed her lips as though I thirsted still |
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My falsity had stung me like a hornet |
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The poison sank and it paralyzed my will |
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I could not move to warn all the younger soldiers |
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That they had been deserted from above |
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So on battlefields from here to Barcelona |
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I'm listed with the enemies of love |
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And long ago she said, "I must be leaving |
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Ah, but keep my body here to lie upon |
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You can move it up and down and when I'm sleeping |
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Run some wire through that rose and wind the swan" |
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So daily I renew my idle duty |
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I touch her here and there, I know my place |
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I kiss her open mouth and I praise her beauty |
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And people call me traitor to my face |